 The Minnesota primaries are less than a month away and today mark the first debate among Democratic candidates for Minnesota's 8th District Congressional seat. All five Democratic candidates were present at the debate in Brainerd and our Anthony Scott was there to get the details. Five Democratic candidates running for Minnesota's 8th District Congressional seat piled into Chalburg Theater at Central Lakes College in Brainerd for the first debate in the primary season. The race for the seat is considered a toss-up and with Trump winning the district in the presidential race Democrats fear the House seat could also turn red this election season. Before the debate each candidate had a different issue that they were most passionate about. I think we need a fundamental restructuring of our economy and I believe that that can happen with political will and working across the aisles. I think our first step is to reverse the one trillion in tax breaks we just gave. That if we can bring broadband and high-speed internet throughout the rural areas of not only the 8th District but throughout this country that we will help to stimulate the economy by creating small businesses small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Reversing climate change is is my number one issue we really have to address the fact that our climate is changing rapidly that we're seeing warming in a lot of our local lakes. If you grew up as I did on spending your summers on lakes in northern Minnesota fishing for walleye or current mix of sport fish that's going to change. So I think that what we need to do is find a way to make sure that more of our health care dollars are devoted to care right now too many dollars are devoted to the administration to CEO bonuses to lobbyists and to advertising. So I think what we have heard from the district collectively is that families can't keep up with the rising costs of health care. We had a woman in Baxter who said that people right in this community are rationing their insulin medication that's just wrong. How that will affect the future of unions. We need to make collective bargaining the law of land. When our country's middle class was strongest union membership was at its highest percentage. What I'm hoping this represents is a renaissance in the union movement in this country that we fight back and we fight back harder than we ever have because the future depends on our middle class was a lot stronger when we had a lot higher union membership in this country. We need to go after the the coax we need to think about boycotting their products. We need to figure out who's behind these attacks and make their make their pocket books pay and and to take them to the streets again. Let me say number one right to work is wrong for Minnesota. I will be an ally for unions because I know that unions have given us that 40 hour week. It has given us our weekends off. We can't go back and change this decision. What we can do is make sure that the judges appointed to the highest courts believe in people. The candidates shared the same stances on a lot of issues since they were all members of the Democratic Party, but the public got a sense of who the candidates were and how they plan on making a difference in Washington. Reporting from Brainerd, Anthony Scott, Lakeland News. And primary election day in Minnesota is set for Tuesday, August 14th. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.