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Economic concerns pushed voters to Trump, so what comes next?
President Trump is promising sweeping changes to tariffs, immigration and taxes. While Wall Street surges in the short term, experts say the months ahead are murky.
MINNEAPOLIS — Exit polls found a consistent theme among the voters who helped send President Donald Trump back to the White House on Tuesday: Inflation and the economy were top of mind.
According to national exit polls conducted by NBC News, 45% of all voters said they were worse off financially than they were four years ago, with 2 in 3 rating the economy poorly.
But at a time when many economic indicators show the U.S. is outperforming many other countries, the views of voters still vary widely.
“One thing that’s interesting about the economy this year is that the economy has sent some mixed signals,” said Chris Chapp, Political Science Professor at St. Olaf College. “And voters really reacted through a very partisan lens.”
Professor Chapp and his students conducted exit polling across 14 precincts within Minnesota Congressional District Two.
Of the 665 voters surveyed, 55% of Trump voters listed “Inflation/Economy” as the most important issue, compared to just 18% of Harris voters.
While Harris did win Minnesota, and narrowly carry CD2, Chapp says economic concerns help explain why she underperformed democrats Angie Craig and Amy Klobuchar.
“In our survey, close to 10% of Klobuchar voters also voted for Trump,” Chapp said.
Of those split-ticket voters, Chapp says 45% listed “Inflation/Economy” as the top issue.
“It doesn’t matter where you go, high prices are hitting people in the face,” said Chris Farrell, senior economics contributor for American Public Media’s Marketplace.
While economic frustrations helped swing the election in Trump’s favor, Farrell says the post election surge on Wall Street on Wednesday also shows how strong the underlying economy continues to be.
“President-elect Trump is inheriting a good economy,” Farrell said. “You have a low unemployment rate. The economy grew at a 2.7% annual rate in the third quarter, the inflation rate is coming down.
And then the expectation is there is going to be less regulation and lower taxes, so you’re looking at pretty good cash flow. That’s what I think we’re going to be seeing in the stock market.”
But he says the real test will be what comes next.
“I do believe that we will have tariff increases,” Farrell said. “I don’t know what exactly the percentage is going to be but Trump has been consistent throughout the campaign and actually back when he was President, very consistent that he likes tariffs.”
Once that plan emerges he anticipates a different kind of inflation fight with the federal reserve over interest rate cuts.
Then there are all the other cuts that Trump has promised on the campaign trail, alongside his so-called “secretary of cost-cutting,” Elon Musk.
“My expectation, and this is what I’m going to watch, is that Musk is going to be involved,” Farrell said. “What does this really mean if he gets involved in cutting the budget, how will that emerge, how deep will the cuts be who is going to get impacted by those cuts? Follow that closely because once we start making cuts, it can have a real impact on people’s ordinary lives.”
Police say the shooting occurred in an alley between Oliver Avenue North and Penn Avenue North at around 5:30 p.m.
MINNEAPOLIS — Police are investigating after a teen was injured in a shooting Wednesday evening in north Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis Police Department was called to an alley between Oliver Avenue North and Penn Avenue North at around 5:30 p.m. on reports of a possible shooting. When officers arrived, they found a 16-year-old boy who had been shot.
Police say the teen heard a vehicle and gunfire before realizing he had been shot.
Officials say the boys is expected to survive, and no arrests have been made.
*This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Police say it happened near Lowry and Sheridan Avenue N.
MINNEAPOLIS — A 10-year-old girl was taken to the hospital Wednesday after being hit by a vehicle.
It happened near Lowry and Sheridan Avenue N, according to Minneapolis police, shortly before 8 p.m.
Police say the girl was running across the road when she was hit by a grey SUV that did not stop. Her injuries were described as non-life-threatening.
No one has been arrested in the case yet, according to officials.
The Minnesota House of Representatives will possibly no longer be controlled by Democrats
MINNEAPOLIS — Challenges await Governor Tim Walz when he returns to Minnesota.
Republicans gained enough seats on election night to possibly tie for control of the Minnesota House, ending the Democrats’ trifecta control of the state’s legislature.
“The Republican Party is gaining power, and they will now be a force to deal with,” said University of Minnesota Political Science Professor, Larry Jacobs. “I think Tim Walz has got his hands full.”
He said Walz had a hectic summer, rising to the top of the political pyramid before going through a trial by fire during the vice-presidential debate. Jacobs said Walz will now have to regain the trust of both Democrats and Republicans.
“One of Tim Walz’s challenges is going to be to win back trust from DFLers who he may have irritated because of some of the policies he’s advocated for on the national stage, but especially from Republicans who he has gone after on the national stage,” he said. “To be both the No. 1 attack dog against Donald Trump and JD Vance, and then come back to Minnesota and expect Republicans to sit down in good faith and negotiate a deal that would politically help the governor, I think that’s a lot to ask.”
Jacobs expects Walz to get pulled in a couple of directions on the national level as well as what’s happening at home. However, he said Minnesota must be his No. 1 priority.
“Minnesota is only going to work again if we can have dialogue across our differences, and I think that is the theme for Tim Walz moving forward,” said Jacobs. “Can you create a dialogue across the differences that define the political parties today?”
Jacobs said it will be key for Walz to work with Republicans to get a budget done to avoid a special session.
“He’s got to find a way in which he can talk and negotiate with Republicans, and I think the first step is talking to Republicans,” Jacobs said. “There’s a lot of scar tissue there from two years in which the DFL, literally, ran over the Republican agenda, ignored Republicans, again and again, passing remarkably extensive spending and programmatic agendas.”
Walz returns to Minnesota with two years left of his gubernatorial term, and Jacobs anticipates it will be a frustrating couple of years for the people who live here.
“We are going to be in a period where the No. 1 agenda for Republicans in practice is to be to stop the DFL,” he said. “The Republicans are going to use their newfound power to deadlock what had been kind of a steam engine of policies, just kind of moving through the Capitol.”
He said both sides will need to compromise because nobody is getting everything they want.
“For Progressives in Minnesota, time’s up,” Jacobs said. “We are not going to see the big spending packages, dreams of new programs that haven’t been passed, that is not going to happen. For Republicans who were hoping for major new tax cuts or maybe rolling back programs, I don’t think that’s going to happen either, and the DFL-controlled Senate will not agree to that.”
Jacobs said a complete deadlock won’t be popular with Minnesotans, so there is some incentive for Republicans to compromise, but not to the extent of tremendous spending that we saw in 2023. He said Democrats will need to find a way to continue their agenda, while not sparking Republican outcry.
He said even though Walz’s political future is uncertain he said one thing is for sure, the gubernatorial race in 2026 starts in January.
