Star Tribune
Fewer Trump-Klobuchar counties show dwindling split-ticket voting
2024′s polarizing election cycle ended with Minnesotans favoring Vice President Kamala Harris for president and re-electing Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. While those statewide results support the state’s reputation for favoring Democrats, a county-level analysis of several key races since 2012 challenges the notion that Minnesota voters choose person over party at the voting booth.
Only 12 counties in 2024 saw the majority of their voters cast split-ticket ballots for president and U.S. Senate. That’s down from 57 counties in 2012, suggesting the gradual disappearance of the moderate, bipartisan voter.
The charts below visualize this trend across three major election cycles by plotting the margins of victory for top ballot races against the corresponding Senate contest by county. Counties in yellow voted for different-party candidates for U.S. Senate and either president or governor.
Even as Minnesotans overall voted to re-elect Klobuchar, 30 counties flipped to support Republican Senate contender Royce White over Klobuchar.
Despite the red wave, Klobuchar had one of the strongest performances among Democratic Senate candidates across the country. She was one of the top two who outperformed Harris, behind Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who lost his re-election bid to Republican Tim Sheehy.
Of Minnesota’s 87 counties, 75 featured a majority vote for either Harris and Klobuchar or presidential contender Donald Trump and White. Counties in the metro area and Arrowhead largely supported the pair of Democrats, while many of the state’s remaining counties reported same-party ballots favoring Trump and White.
Just 12 counties supported split-ticket ballots of both Trump and Klobuchar, among them Anoka, Carver and Scott counties. Norman County, north of the Moorhead area, had the largest margin for Trump — more than 20 points — while still also voting for Klobuchar by a slim margin. No counties reported majority ballots for Harris and White.
Just six years ago — the last time Klobuchar was on the ballot, albeit not in a presidential election year — a far greater number of counties saw support for split-ticket choices in the gubernatorial and Senate races.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in both parties on Thursday called on a congressional panel to release the results of an investigation into alleged misconduct by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., demanding to see its report about sexual misconduct and other charges against President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the attorney general.
Gaetz abruptly resigned Wednesday after Trump announced he was the pick to lead the Justice Department, shocking many members of Congress who see him as unqualified and unfit for the post. His rapid exit effectively ended the ethics panel’s investigation into him two days before members had planned to vote on whether to release their long-awaited findings.
Since the spring of 2021, the House Ethics Committee has been investigating claims that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use and accepted impermissible gifts under House rules, among other charges.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Judiciary Committee, which would have jurisdiction over confirming an attorney general, on Thursday called on the House panel to preserve and share its conclusions.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report,” Durbin said in a statement. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the chair of the Ethics Committee, suggested in comments to reporters that he was not inclined to release the investigative findings now that Gaetz has resigned.
“Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued,” Guest said.
That raised the possibility of a constitutional clash between the Senate, which is charged with vetting and confirming presidential nominees, and the House at the start of Trump’s second term. Trump has already threatened to circumvent the Senate and unilaterally appoint people to his administration during a recess, short-circuiting the normal process.
The dominance Becker High’s football team showed all season was evident in the Class 4A state semifinals Thursday at U.S. Bank Stadium as the No. 1-ranked Bulldogs controlled the game from the outset in a 28-7 victory over Marshall.
Beck will face the winner of the Orono-Totino Grace semifinal in the championship game Nov. 22 at 1 p.m.
Becker finished the game with 322 total yards compared to Marshall’s 202. Becker never let Marshall gain momentum.
Sawyer Brown both threw a touchdown pass and caught a touchdown pass for Becker, which remains undefeated at 12-0.
Marshall ends the season with a record of 10-2.
Star Tribune
Trump expected to choose vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, AP sources say
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.
HHS is a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.
He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.
The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.
