Kare11
Trump lost Minnesota, but four counties flip to red
Trump shaved his margin of defeat from roughly seven points to four, according to preliminary data.
MINNEAPOLIS — On his way back to the White House, President-elect Donald Trump did not capture the state of Minnesota, which still has not voted for a Republican candidate since Richard Nixon in 1972.
However, compared to 2020, Trump shaved his margin of defeat from roughly seven points to four points. County-by-county results also show notable gains in Greater Minnesota. In all, the Trump-Vance ticket flipped four counties red this election: Winona, Nicollet, Carlton and Blue Earth County.
Those last two really sting for the Democrats and the Minnesota DFL.
According to the Cook Political Report, Carlton County voters had not chosen a Republican president since Herbert Hoover in 1928. Additionally, Blue Earth County is Gov. Tim Walz’s home county, where he served for years as a teacher and coach in the county seat of Mankato.
Preliminary data shows Trump defeating the Harris-Walz ticket by fewer than 500 votes in Blue Earth County this year, after losing by more than 1,000 to President Biden in 2020.
Yvonne Simon, the chair of the Blue Earth County Republicans, credited her organization’s ground game for flipping the county red.
“It was a lot of hard work. We did a lot of phone calling, door-knocking, events to create awareness. We also had a campaign office in Mankato where people could come in and get signs,” Simon said. “What we were hearing in the campaign office was what you heard at the national level too — economy, economy, economy.”
Simon said the results in Blue Earth County specifically sent a message about Gov. Walz, who attended a Mankato West football game last month and had local supporters gather to watch election results on Tuesday evening.
“Walz, in our area from my experience in living here, is not exactly appreciated for what he thinks and takes us for granted for,” Simon said. “That type of value that the people of Blue Earth County had placed on what he did or didn’t do, turned it, I believe.”
Still, the margins were razor-thin in the four counties that Trump flipped red this year. He won all of those counties by 2,000 votes or fewer, and in Nicollet County — which borders Blue Earth — Trump won by about 100 votes (with 95 percent of precincts reporting, per NBC News). Also, it should be noted that Trump’s overall performance in Minnesota still did not match his margins in 2020, when he came within two percentage points of defeating Hillary Clinton.
Even so, Democratic strategist and former DFL legislator Jeff Hayden said Trump’s gains are a danger sign for his party.
“I think it really speaks to the issue in Minnesota, and nationally, where Democrats have — for some reason — really lost this relationship with working-class people,” Hayden said. “Especially in Minnesota where the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is really part of our creed. And for whatever reason, our message is not resonating with those kind of blue-collar, labor groups out there.”
The results in Minnesota mirror national trends, where the Harris ticket significantly underperformed compared to Biden in 2020.
“We have to do some real work in listening to people,” Hayden said, “and articulating what our platform is — and why we think this is better.”
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.
