Can the DFL reconnect with rural Minnesotans?
August 2, 2017
If you look at the electoral map of Minnesota in 2016, it’s possible to conclude that the DFL no longer is a statewide party.
One little exercise brings that point home: If you subtract all the votes cast in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties in the 2016 election, Donald Trump would have easily carried Minnesota, with 58 percent of the vote.
As it was, Hillary Clinton defeated Trump, with 46.1 percent of the statewide vote. But she carried just nine of the state’s 87 counties. And not only did Trump crush Clinton in Greater Minnesota, but Republicans won control of both houses of the Legislature.
