Michael "Mike" V. Ciresi is a prominent trial attorney and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for the United States Senate from Minnesota. He dropped out on March 10, 2008. Ciresi gained his public reputation by litigating several high-profile mass tort cases. Ciresi is the former Chairman of the Executive Board of the Minneapolis firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, a 250-lawyer firm he joined in 1971. He left in 2015 to form his own firm.

Rodney Dwight Grams was an American politician and television news anchor who served in both the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. A local news anchor, Grams became well-known for working at Twin Cities station KMSP-TV from 1982 until 1991. He was a member of the Republican Party.