Senator Amy Klobuchar faced Republican State Representative Kurt Bills.

Klobuchar served as Minnesota's only senator between January 3 and July 7, 2009, due to the contested results of Minnesota's senatorial election held the previous year, finally decided in favor of DFLer Al Franken.

Party chairman Mark Jenkins said in November 2011 that he saw the Senate election as "a distraction from having our best and brightest engaged in state legislative races".

He proceeded with his run for the Senate but the party focused its attention on state legislative races.

[10] On August 29 Klobuchar and Bills held their second debate at the State Fair, sponsored by MPR News.