That things are anywhere near that close here is absolutely bonkers. What the hell happened to Minnesota nice?
MN here. “Minnesota Nice” is a term used here to refer to passive-aggressive niceness and our collective inability to face conflict head on. Many MN Nice moms might bake cookies for a friend after a cancer diagnosis, but then still vote for the Republicans that are slashing funding for cancer research. The disconnect between pretty manners and ugly politics is very stark. Huge political divide between the Twin Cites/Duluth and the rest of the state.
If it makes you feel any better the actual voter turnout was better:
The results of this special election were: DFL candidate Doron Clark won with 90.91% of the vote (7,783 votes) Republican candidate Abigail Wolters received 8.71% of the vote (746 votes)
Good on them. I actually live in one of the reddest parts of the state and find myself surrounded by maga noise on the regular. It was disturbing though watching on election night just how long it took to call MN. We used to be one of those places like CA where they could pretty well declare a winner the moment the polls closed.
Yea, I lived in Chicago (ca. 2003-2010) when that stuff started sliding. Koch money had a lot other do with Wisconsin and Minnesota’s red streak.
A Republican hasn’t won a state wide race in like a decade but within the state it’s closer. Like everywhere there’s blue cities and red rurals areas.
