Following Ellison's victory in the DFL primary, Fine and Lee immediately started campaigning. Ellison promised to run a campaign on the "issues", and accused his opponents of attempting to steer the conversation towards his controversies because "on the issues they're in... big trouble". Ellison also attempted to de-emphasise his religion while campaigning. Fine's campaign largely focused on Ellison's past ties to the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, while Lee's campaign emphasised her fiscal centrism, declaring that Fine was too conservative to beat Ellison. In contrast to Fine and Lee, Pond declared that Ellison was insufficiently liberal, stating that he had not been fast enough to denounce the Iraq War. However, Pond largely failed to gain traction, which was attributed to Ellison's staunch progressivism drawing off left-wing support that Pond might otherwise have received.