Why is Minnesota a solid blue state?
Posted by 88-81@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 151 comments
Does the Minneapolis/St Paul metro area simply swamp out the rural population or is there more to it?
lilzingerlovestorun@reddit
Yeah. MSP is the big metro area and swamps the rest of the state. Duluth and up north are lean blue bc of the unions they’ve had there for decades. It’s important to know that it’s not even a solid blue state. In some spots, it’s like an overripe tomato.
SavannahInChicago@reddit
And its like that with most states. Chicago and the surrounding suburbs vote blue and that is where most of the population live. Rural areas vote red and there are a lot of rural outside Chicago.
AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit
The only two areas of blue outside of Chicago and the collar counties are Peoria and Champaign Urbana. Everywhere else is tomato red. And we have people from southern Illinois wanting Chicago to become it's own state not realizing that a lot of the money they get in aid and such comes from Chicago and the collar counties. And if Chicago becomes it's own state, the collar counties would be going with Chicago.
Kitchen-Lie-7894@reddit
My county ( Madison) actually voted, non binding, to secede from Illinois.
brokken2090@reddit
Why would you live in such a hellish place?
AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit
I don't understand. Are they trying to become part of Missouri or the new smallest state in the nation?
Kitchen-Lie-7894@reddit
They're trumpers who hate the fact that Chicago makes us a blue state.
AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit
I understand why they want to do it. I don't understand what they're trying to accomplish. Of course it's the maga crowd. But like, are they trying to become their own tiny, independent state? If so, do they have a plan in place for state government? How about the tax revenue they get from Chicago and the collar counties? That will disappear so they'll have to raise taxes to cover infrastructure and other such stuff. Are they gonna try and be absorbed into Missouri? How's that gonna work? I feel like the maga people that hate that Illinois is a blue state should move to a red state. Missouri is right across the river 😁
Kitchen-Lie-7894@reddit
I don't know that they've thought it through. That's not their strong suit.
Entropy907@reddit
Washington and Oregon have entered the chat.
Maktesh@reddit
Yup. It's isn't even about Rs and Ds – I'm simply tired of Seattle culture dictating the entirety of the state's politics.
buried_lede@reddit
Except Massachusetts. Not without red but really blue against the trend rural working class places.
Massachusetts also ranked #1 for public schools nationally. They are better educated
BroughtBagLunchSmart@reddit
If only there was a lesson to be learned here. Anyways time to give half the education budget to PragerU to teach kids that slaves enjoyed working on plantations.
RnBvibewalker@reddit
Of course Reddit doesn't know sarcasm even if its obvious.
Consistent-Fig7484@reddit
Don’t forget they were introduced to Jesus the Christ
buried_lede@reddit
That’s where we are going! Ugh
Huge_Lime826@reddit
That’s why Trump loves the uneducated. And the uneducated love him because they’re too stupid to know what the truth is.
porcelainvacation@reddit
Vermont too
alvvavves@reddit
Yeah I can confirm that Colorado is the same way. Even between somewhat urban areas there’s quite a bit of juxtaposition.
As far as Illinois goes it was kind of wild how many trump signs you’d see as soon as you leave St. Louis and drive through southern Illinois.
Miserable_Smoke@reddit
Cities are blue, rural is red, because their hate their lives but also hate cities. It rings true pretty much everywhere, even super liberal California.
LemonGrenadier@reddit
But not Mass or Vermont.
Specific-Umpire-8980@reddit
'overripe tomato' ha ha!
quasifun@reddit
But like for example Atlanta is the same way, the full metro area is about half the population. And yet it is much more Republican. And places like Vermont have basically no meaningful cities at all, and yet are still very Democrat.
I think the urban/rural divide in voting is significant, but there are other factors.
Curmudgy@reddit
“Metro areas” tend to include suburbs, which are often more Republican.
quasifun@reddit
Atlanta has both very Democrat and very Republican suburbs. Gentrification has made its suburbs much more diverse than in the past.
Minneapolis has suburbs also, so it seems that they woyld have similar effects on voting outcomes. But it looks like they don’t, which is why I say there are other factors.
jastay3@reddit
The writer of The Cousin's Wars believes that a lot of it is ethnic: the subcultures that fought in the English Civil War, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War take the same sides in elections. It sounds more plausible when you read the book.
marticcrn@reddit
We’re reasonable people who tolerate social, racial, and cultural differences.
We think your medical decisions should be between you are your doctor.
We think taxes should pay for parks and school lunches and things that improve the quality of life for folks that live here.
Did I mention that we had a budget surplus last year?
cIumsythumbs@reddit
Also, we vote. High voter turn out historically favors liberal candidates. We have same day registration at the polls and do not require ID. We are one of the most accessible states to vote in.
MM_in_MN@reddit
Yes! Voter turnout is typically in high 70’s.
Early voting, absentee voting, curbside voting. Voter registration is easy, and encouraged. My realtor gave us registration cards when we bought our house, and I remember them being passed out to all seniors in HS along with our graduation documents. Employer support for voting - if I am an election judge, I do not need to burn a day of PTO to work the election. Polling places in accessible locations, with manageable populations they service.
MM_in_MN@reddit
And we name our snowplows stupid names!
https://www.dot.state.mn.us/nameasnowplow/
88-81@reddit (OP)
I hear mostly good things Minnesota. It really sounds like the place to be in many regards.
Chicago1871@reddit
Except its as cold as sweden and norway.
KR1735@reddit
Ugh. I wish. Last year was so dry. It's been somewhat dry this year so far, too. (I live in Canada, but just an hour across the border from MN so our weather is similar.)
Usually we get the bulk of our snow in January-March, at least in recent years. But last year we just didn't get much at all. It's a source of frustration because winter sports, including snowmobiling, are very popular but you need snow for that and not merely cold weather.
Chicago1871@reddit
I was thinking of 2022-2023, yall got record snowfall.
Chicago had zero snow on the ground that winter. It just wouldn’t stick, it was too warm.
Tuokaerf10@reddit
Colder even in our populated areas. Minneapolis’ winter averages month to month are a good bit lower than most of the major cities in both Sweden and Norway. Summer is significantly warmer here too.
The snow part though, we don’t get as much as people may think. Like upstate NY and the northeast get a good bit more than us usually.
Chicago1871@reddit
Well yeah, the great lake effect areas get more than almost anywhere else in the usa lol. I have a cabin near lake superior in the UP and the same thing happens there most winters.
But I think the difference is you get more sustained days below 0c/32f so it just piles and piles as winter goes and goes and it just drifts around.
As a lifetime Chicagoan I could adjust but idk if someone from latin america would love it. I think its borderline criminal thats where we resettled so many somalian and hmong refugees. What a culture shock that must be at first.
FlourMogul@reddit
Along these lines…it’s seems from the outside that Minnesota democrats are more populist and responsive to the common man, whereas the Dems nationally have become elitist/focused on protecting the status quo.
not_doing_that@reddit
Damnit did you just convince me to move to Minnesota???
Ranew@reddit
Come on in the weather's..... well it's weather...
MM_in_MN@reddit
It’s not so much solid blue anymore. But it’s also not just because of The Cities. Northern MN was pretty dark blue, and Duluth still is, because of the strong labor unions. Iron ore/ taconite mines, lumber mills, and Great Lakes shipping. All big industries in Northern MN. Then in southern MN, it’s all prairie turned farmland. The Democratic Party in MN is the DFL, Democratic Farm Labor.
Add in our Scandinavian roots of looking after the good of all, taking care of your neighbor, we’re all in this together, societal goals, etc, and well, that leans democratic.
AndImNuts@reddit
It's not as blue as you might think, we did come pretty close this election, and I think if democrats keep running career politicians and pro-establishment candidates it might creek closer. I don't think it'll be red any time soon but it is not as different as people think.
It'd be more blue if Bernie hadn't been screwed. A lot of people got sour over that.
AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit
60% of the state lives in the Twin Cities
Hennepin and Ramsey county both went for Harris at a 70% rate. Most suburban counties also vote blue. It gets redder as you go out but Rochester area is also blue as is Duluth and Iron Range and a few other areas like Moorhead.
Minnesota was settled by Scandinavians in the 20th century. Many of these Scandinavians brought their populist and "socialist" ideals. Back then the word "socialist" was not the bogeyman it is today. It was not seen as this antithesis to capitalism it referred more to publicly funded social welfare and a culture if sort of investing in your community.
Minnesota has historically been a strongly pro-labour state.
Minnesota is also more Lutheran. Lutherans have always sort of been the more socially progressive protestants. Its funny cuz one of the "criticisms" I hear of Lutheranism is how its the least racially diverse protestant demonination and its predominantly white but the way I see it, its cuz Lutherans didn't try to convert racial minorities like Catholics did lol Lutherans brought many refugees to Minnesota in the '90s without expecting them to convert to Lutheranism or even Christianity. They brought many Muslim Somalis. I think thats a good altruistic thing. Lots of other Christian "missionaries" to charitable things with the ulterior motives of converting ppl. Lutherans are like "Nah just come on over. No strings attached. You wont even have to eat the lutefisk." I respect that.
ExUpstairsCaptain@reddit
Speaking as a Lutheran, it depends upon which sect of Lutheranism you're talking about.
AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit
Well the ones that love to eat smelly fish
ExUpstairsCaptain@reddit
I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about. Is this a Minnesota thing I'm not aware of? Serious question.
concrete_isnt_cement@reddit
Lutefisk
ExUpstairsCaptain@reddit
I learned something new today.
tu-vens-tu-vens@reddit
"Trying to convert racial minorities" is a strange way to describe Catholic demographics that doesn't really make sense of the Catholic Church's self-understanding. For starters, the word Catholic literally means "universal" in Greek – the church (and Christianity as a whole) came into being in a multiethnic, multicultural empire, starting with a small ethnic minority that influenced and sought to convert the non-Jewish majority. The claim to being cross-cultural is in Catholicism's DNA (and again, really the DNA of Christianity as a whole.) Even as Europe became thoroughly Christian, people outside Europe weren't really seen as racial minorities: the Muslim world and to an extent the Orthodox East were more perceived as rival civilizations.
The Reformation resulted in splintered churches that didn't have the universal reach of Catholicism. In England, the reach of the British Empire gave its churches the opportunity to pursue more universal aims, and so Baptists, Methodists, Reformed, and Anglicans all tried to convert the masses (and by this time, European imperial dominance meant that they did see others as minorities or some other subaltern group in a way that wasn't as much the case in earlier eras). Lutherans in Scandinavia and Germany didn't have a big empire and became more inward-looking. The immigrant experience in the US made that tendency even stronger – Lutheran churches became associated with a specific ethnicity and a cultural hub due to the realities of immigrant life.
AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit
Its literally what Catholics did in Canada, Mexico and across Latin America. ..
-dag-@reddit
It's also notable that many of Minnesota's early political leaders came from the Northeast. It's why we are politically closer to NY and MA than we are to Iowa or the Dakotas.
AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit
Yea MN was founded by a mix of Canadians n New Englanders
cjstop@reddit
The strong Lutherism impact isn’t talked about enough regarding the upper Midwest
TheKingofSwing89@reddit
Ironic considering how damn antisemitic and racist Luther was.
AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit
Yea but that was the middle ages lol
However unfortunately Minnesota does have a history of anti-semitism. It was pretty anti-semitic up until the mid 20th century.
But shit changes.
monmoneep@reddit
Catholic charities were also very involved in bringing Hmong and Somali refugees to MN
AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit
Thats great. I am Catholic (culturally... at least. Went to sunday school as a kid. Not really religious anymore) and we can be charitable but... we also have a history of being a bit pushy. You can thank the Spanish and French for that. And I spose the Roman Empire before them.
Look at them residential schools the Catholic church set up in Canada. And the amount of racist whitewashing. My husbands grandmother was a devout Catholic woman that was raised to believe her culture's Native American spiritual beliefs were satanic. Its a sad thing.
TheActualSammych@reddit
Lutherans.
No_Fee_8997@reddit
The University of Minnesota plays a part.
im-on-my-ninth-life@reddit
For the same reason Illinois is a solid blue state.
Leo_Ascendent@reddit
There are definitely MAGA here. I went from Minneapolis to my family's cabin 130 miles north, and I am used to seeing MAGA 2024 signs, they even recycle the "TRUMP PENCE" signs by pasting over the "PE" with "VA". Another big, 50ft or so sign that says "THIS IS TRUMP COUNTRY", around Mora, I think.
Mpls/StP are just where roughly 55% of the population live, and a majority are liberal, so yeah, that alone will push us to the left every time.
Mediocre_Daikon6935@reddit
It is often worse out west because of all the federal land.
People can’t move out of the cities because 90+ percent of the land is controlled by the fed.
Rhomya@reddit
Minnesota is a purple state that is being held hostage by a metro area bound and determined to ignore the rest of outstate Minnesota, to the detriment of the rest of Minnesota.
Which is why it’s been getting more and more red with every election since Obama.
x_pinklvr_xcxo@reddit
you’re right! we should get rid of the electoral college so some places cant hold the rest hostage.
zugabdu@reddit
It's not so much that Minnesota is overwhelmingly blue - it's that it's had the longest streak of any state (not counting DC) in voting exclusively for Democratic presidential candidates because it didn't vote for Reagan in 1984 (the Democratic candidate was Walter Mondale, who was from Minnesota), and then Reagan only lost the state by a few thousand votes. The 2016 election was quite close, with Clinton only edging out Trump by less than 2%. Minnesota has been close enough the last few elections that Republicans treat it as a winnable state for them - they held their nominating convention there in 2008.
While the state has remained blue at the presidential level, patterns of voting have changed, with the Twin Cities becoming even more blue over the past few decades as the rural areas have trended red. A majority of the population of the state lives in the Twin Cities Metro area. There's an interesting comparison to be made with neighboring Wisconsin, which has a larger rural population whose cities are smaller and more scattered - which plays a role in Wisconsin being more prone to voting Republican.
Minnesota has also had Republican governors for most of the 90s (Arne Carlson) and from 2003-2011 (Tim Pawlenty). For twelve of the past thirty years, the Republican Party has also held a majority in at least one house of the state legislature. So the state, while more Democratic than the nation as a whole, isn't overwhelmingly so - it's not like California or Massachusetts.
For a little piece of trivia, in Minnesota, the Democratic Party is known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party or more commonly, the DFL. It's just a naming convention; it doesn't affect anything.
youngathanacius@reddit
It’s not just a naming convention there’s quite a bit of history to it. There used to be a Minnesota Farmer-Labor party that merged with the state democratic party in 1944. Unfortunately it doesn’t really affect anything anymore, but points to a time when there was a movement to in the state aiming to represent both the urban and rural working class.
DionBlaster123@reddit
"There's an interesting comparison to be made with neighboring Wisconsin, which has a larger rural population whose cities are smaller and more scattered - which plays a role in Wisconsin being more prone to voting Republican."
Can confirm as I live in Wisconsin (though I'm not from here) and I have a lot of friends who live in the Twin Cities.
The sense I get is that no one really chooses to move to Milwaukee if you are not from Wisconsin, although I will say that I really like Milwaukee as a city, it's just a lot more localized than say Chicago.
The Twin Cities attracts a lot of people from across the Upper Midwest. I know of at least 6-7 people I met in Wisconsin who have all moved there in the last 3-5 years
zugabdu@reddit
I wonder if Milwaukee suffers from being very close to Chicago. Like if you live in the Midwest and want to live in a larger city, youspeneed a specific reason to pick Milwaukee. The Twin Cities are more isolated from other urban areas, allowing them to vacuum up more of the rural population from the surrounding states without having to compete as much with an other large nearby destination.
ExUpstairsCaptain@reddit
This is the vibe I get. The one person I know who moved to Milwaukee did so only because of her job. What I mean is, she chose to leave that job after a very, very short time and, once she left, she seemed to have no real desire to stick around because her next jobs weren't in that city.
Kichigai@reddit
Yeah, but look at all the people who voted third party. Johnson alone got triple the margin of victory, and there was a lot of energy across the political spectrum to boost him as high as he could go, thinking that would be the straw that broke the two-party-system’s back and shake things up for 2020.
Electrical_Quiet43@reddit
It will be interesting to see if the flip of low propensity voters from DFL to Republicans in the Trump era will move the legislature toward the DFL by avoiding losses in non-presidential years.
GOTaSMALL1@reddit
"He he... 'Wheres the beef'. No wonder he won Minnesota."
cIumsythumbs@reddit
For what it's worth, Arnie Carlson left the Republican party a few years back. He was never a super conservative Republican to begin with.
ageekyninja@reddit
In general metro areas will always go blue. They are diverse. You get exposed to a lot of different people. Conversations about race, immigration, and sexuality becomes conversations about the guy next door. So it’s easy to become a democrat with time.
KR1735@reddit
There's a young-ish gay couple (late 30s/early 40s) that moved in to my parents' neighborhood from the Twin Cities shortly after COVID. This neighborhood being in a red county. My parents are both social liberals (mom's a progressive, dad's a libertarian), so they were concerned how they'd be received.
All it took was a housewarming party. Most of the people in the neighborhood may vote Republican, but nobody can turn down a good party. And speaking as a bi guy, gay men throw the best parties. They are well-liked now.
You're right insofar as it's harder to tolerate homophobia (and other forms of intolerance/bigotry) when the target is a real person in your life who you like. Doesn't mean you'll vote Democrat, but it definitely pushes you away from Republicans.
ageekyninja@reddit
Yeah, where I’m from most of the people who go right on social issues (or turn a blind eye) are simply isolated from those very people’s way of life, and so the only way they know of them is as a caricature which is easy to dehumanize
swinging-in-the-rain@reddit
I know that those who love The Boundary Waters understand that the GOP would gladly destroy it to make a quick buck for their buddies.
KR1735@reddit
Not sure who's downvoting you and why, but this is objectively true and the GOP isn't exactly ashamed of it. (source)
They may not claim to be gladly destroying it. But opening up a pristine natural area for mining inevitably does it. I wish the states rights party would take a page from their own playbook and let the states manage this if they're going to pull this shit. Because it's mostly Minnesotans who go there, and we don't want mining in our parks and wildlife areas. There are other places to do that.
KR1735@reddit
Pretty much, yes.
Though we also have some rural areas that aren't as Republican as rural areas in other states. The Iron Range (NE MN) is only about 55/45 Republican. It used to be even bluer, but young people are leaving and unfortunately cultural grievances have taken hold of a lot of former reliably Democratic voters who think neither of the parties care about their financial wellbeing.
We haven't elected a Republican statewide since 2006 -- and that only happened because of a strong center-left third-party candidate. The Republicans could win statewide in Minnesota, but it would require them to do what Republicans have done in Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, etc. -- nominate a moderate. The Minnesota Republican Party doesn't ever seem to want to do that, even though they have plenty of options. So they keep losing.
It's not that Minnesota loves left-wing policies. We prefer middle-of-the-road pragmatic policies that improve people's lives, regardless of who proposes them. Historically, we're culturally not averse to solutions that involve modest taxation and government spending. And so when Republicans say "we're going to cut taxes and public investment", which seems to be their only solutions, it doesn't resonate in Minnesota like it might in South Dakota or Nebraska. We also really don't like culture wars. We were among the first states, in 2012, to defeat an anti-gay marriage amendment by popular referendum, after so many other states passed them including California four years earlier.
49Flyer@reddit
Minnesota isn't as blue as it appears; while it has been consistently blue at the Presidential level since 1976 it's often been close. Here's the margin of victory from past Presidential elections:
As you can see, the only times Minnesota has ever been won by more than 10% (generally the threshold for being considered a "safe" state) were in years where the Democrats performed especially strong nationally. That being said, there is a significant and growing urban-rural divide in Minnesota with the Twin Cities generally getting bluer and the countryside getting redder over the past 20 years.
CremeAggressive9315@reddit
Yes, Minneapolis does indeed do that.
Carochio@reddit
Because people like jobs, prosperity, and freedom. This isn't hard.
health__insurance@reddit
The biggest white ethnicity in the Midwest is German. Minnesota stands out as heavily Scandinavian and less German.
People bring their politics and it lasts for generations.
Solid_Mongoose_3269@reddit
There are no blue states, only blue cities
21schmoe@reddit
Yes, and this is also true for Illinois, New York, Virginia (part of the DC metro area), and California (SF Bay, LA, SD metro areas).
AnybodySeeMyKeys@reddit
That's every state. The red/blue divide is very much an urban/rural one.
ContributionPure8356@reddit
Yes but it varies in some places.
Here in PA most rural counties are 70%+ Republican.
In NY and Virginia they’re barely in the 60s if not the 50s. Minnesota is much more like NY and VA in that aspect. Their rural places aren’t as completely republican as other states.i think it boils down to a cultural difference.
-dag-@reddit
Agree. Many of Minnesota's early political leaders hailed from the Northeast, which is why we're closer politically to NY and MA than we are to many other Midwestern states.
QuarterMaestro@reddit
The Upper Midwest still has plenty of rural whites who vote Democratic, even if they are no longer a majority. In the much of the South the number of rural whites who vote Dem is close to zero, and almost all the Dem votes in rural areas come from Black voters.
Real-Psychology-4261@reddit
Agree 100% as a Minnesotan.
I_amnotanonion@reddit
The difference with VA (and a lot of the south) is that a lot of the rural areas have a high population of black people who typically vote for the democrats at a national level at least. NY doesn’t really have that to the same extent VA does.
ContributionPure8356@reddit
That makes sense.
Though I wonder what the difference is in Minnesota and New York.
Heck New England is the same way too, if not more pronounced, and they're practically an ethno-state. I really think it is that some places have more cultural left wing rural areas.
yo8088@reddit
Not every state. In MA and VT, the most rural areas actually vote blue
pepstein@reddit
They have a pretty well rated education system
WVC_Least_Glamorous@reddit
Somali families in St. Louis Park push to let children opt out of reading LGBTQ+ books
NamingandEatingPets@reddit
I will add that I actually wrote a paper on my economics class that required a two state comparison. It was Minnesota and Wisconsin. Minnesota is amazing as far as it’s economic governments. I coined a new phrase because of it. “Trickle up economics“. That’s when the government invests in infrastructure which provides long-term employment which in turns means more local spending. It’s the opposite of a vicious cycle. Started with Dalton. Minnesota also taxes the rich. It’s a very fiscally well run state, especially compared to its neighbors.
Iuris_Aequalitatis@reddit
Precisely. Rural Minnesota is similar in voting patterns to rural Iowa, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Minneapolis, whose metro area comprises approximately 60% of the state's population, dictates a very different politics to the rest of the state. Illinois is very similar due to Chicago. But for these huge urban areas, both state's would be red and largely indistinguishable from their less-urbanized neighbors.
The only states that votes blue not entirely on the back of their urban populations are in New England.
Randvek@reddit
I want to add that Minnesota, more than any other state, has strong cultural impacts from a Nordic heritage. The same Norwegian/Swedish sensibilities that make those nations open to progressive policies runs strong there, without the traditional/conservative English background much of the rest of the nation is saddled with.
Does this make Minnesotans just a little bit more awesome than other states? Yes, yes it does.
Highway_Man87@reddit
The Minnesota metro area, Duluth, and a few of the more populous counties are blue.
The rest of the state is quite red, although we did have Colin Peterson representing my home district for the longest time. He was part of the Blue Dog Coalition, which was made up of moderate Democrats and conservative Democrats. I didn't agree with him on everything, but I actually thought he represented us pretty well. However in today's polarized climate, he would likely be labeled as a Republican.
Zama202@reddit
Several reasons: (1) There’s a history and culture of being more linked to progressive politics. In 1980s Walter Mondale actually carried the state, but it goes back further than that. (2) Urban & Suburban populations dwarf rural populations, when compared to neighboring states. (3) A religious tradition that is mostly main-line Protestants (lots of Lutherans), who tend to be much less conservative than Catholics, Baptists, Evangelicals, & Pentecostals. (4) Higher median household income and higher median education levels than other rust-belt states (like Michigan and Wisconsin). Employment is diversified, and less reliant on manufacturing. Different tech sectors (biotech, fintech, etc) as well as banking and traditional industries like agribusiness.
SinfullySinless@reddit
Heavily pro-union state. The Democrat party here managed to successfully merge farmers and blue collar tradesmen under the DFL- typically farmers and blue collar tradesmen can swing conservative otherwise.
The policies we pass are sensible and not in your face, which helps please moderates who usually just want to be left alone.
We have high taxes but you definitely see where it goes- especially when you road trip to other states.
Sad-Corner-9972@reddit
The whole Red/Blue thing is overstated by the media and played up by those who want to sow division in America.
ViewtifulGene@reddit
Land doesn't vote. The large population centers typically lean more left because when you interact with a broader variety of people from day-to-day, you tend to see more value in helping those people.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Rural doesn’t always mean red
No-Conversation1940@reddit
Population doesn't always mean blue, either. The Springfield metro area in Missouri has about half a million people but is deep red. Even Greene County, where Springfield itself is located, votes GOP by about a 20% margin in each election.
danhm@reddit
See also Vermont. And for the opposite, Texas is pretty urban.
DoublePostedBroski@reddit
Vermont is weird because they have a Republican governor.
nso95@reddit
Most of Texas is definitely not urban
danhm@reddit
Half of Texas lives in or near Dallas and Houston. Of the other half, much of it is in and around Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso. And then there are lots of smaller cities with populations of around 100,000-300,000 like Lubbock, Corpus Christi, and McAllen. It is very urban.
nso95@reddit
But most of the area in Texas is very rural. Throw a dart at Texas and you’re more likely to hit an area in the middle of nowhere. I suppose if doesn’t necessarily matter for voting though.
danhm@reddit
Right. Most states are empty, even Rhode Island!
SnooChipmunks2079@reddit
It doesn’t matter for voting at all, which the right “forgets” all the time.
nso95@reddit
But for the time being Texas still votes red nationally (sadly)
notthegoatseguy@reddit
Vermont had a Republican US Senator from 1857 to 2001, when Jim Jeffords switched from R to Independent and started caucusing with the Democrats.
Their days of electing GOP Senators may be over, but Phil Scott has been Gov of Vermont since 2017 and won in 2022 with 70% of the vote.
danhm@reddit
I assume we're talking presidential results. Minnesota has had plenty of Republicans too -- Michele Bachmann was popular for awhile recently and the current GOP whip is from the same district.
JudgeWhoOverrules@reddit
Maine is the most rural state in the country according to the census and they're reliably blue.
beenoc@reddit
Maine has a moderate Republican and an independent that caucuses with the Democrats (but would be one of, if not the most conservative Democrat in the chamber if he actually joined the party) for senators. They elected a Republican for governor in 2010 and 2014. There's generally only 5-10% vote difference between the parties. They're definitely blue leaning, probably too much so to be a true swing state, but I'd put them in the "leans blue" category alongside places like Virginia rather than the "reliably blue" category (which is where I'd put, like, New York.)
ContributionPure8356@reddit
Alaska is an amazing example of an urban Republican state.
Rural places there are blue.
sics2014@reddit
And see Massachusetts. All of New England probably.
Vakr_Skye@reddit
Large areas of rural Minnesota had strong Democrat support due to the unions on the Iron Range but some of them shut down and the power of the union has diminished in general, plus the shift to identity politics (on both sides) has had a strong influence pushing many religious white rural voters to the other side.
boulevardofdef@reddit
It does in Minnesota, though. Minnesota has a stark urban-rural divide in terms of politics; OP's premise, that the urban areas simply overwhelm the rural areas, is correct.
Real-Psychology-4261@reddit
But the rural areas are more like 55-65% red instead of 80% red like in rural parts of some southern states.
TheViolaRules@reddit
It pretty much does in MN though except the Native American majority areas
TechnologyDragon6973@reddit
It’s not if you look at a county by county map.
Prestigious_Pack4680@reddit
Because they are educated sane moral people.
rharney6@reddit
In my Mpls ward: 90% voted for Harris. Turnout was close to 80%. While not NYC dense, it’s certainly LOTS more dense than rural counties. This is largely the case for all Mpls and StP wards. Total population there about 750K. Add first ring suburbs that are a little less blue, a little lower turnout and somewhat less dense, but still substantially more than rural counties and you have a strong DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor…three parties that merged early in the 20th Century) party base at a state-wide level. GOP presidential candidates have not won in MN since 1972. The last GOP statewide winner was in 2007 I think.
cIumsythumbs@reddit
Are you in kingfield? I always wonder what the turnout is for kingfield they throw a huge party on election Day and turn out like no other neighborhood I've seen.
rharney6@reddit
Ericsson. You can find ward level stats online.
MPLS_Poppy@reddit
The majority of the population lives in the Twins Cities. And the other cities in the state also vote blue. That’s the majority of the population. Land doesn’t vote, people do.
Argosnautics@reddit
Higher level of education relative to a red state.
Guapplebock@reddit
Rural/suburban parts of Wisconsin are mostly red with blue standouts of Milwaukee and Madison.
venus_arises@reddit
I lived in the Twin Cities for a year; my theory is the weather.
If you are unprepared for it, the cold will hit you and it can feel never-ending. So you have to be super committed to staying yourself or getting other people to stay there. You have a mindset of helping others because the winter is long and cold and dark and you spend time indoors talking to people and my god you have to help each other survive. Once the weather gets warmer people it's so warm, this made winter worth it, move here and experience this! Swim in a lake, do a hike, bike on Hennepin!
cIumsythumbs@reddit
And as Prince once said, "the cold keeps the riff raff out"
cmh_ender@reddit
Minnesota Nice.
When I used to visit northern Minnesota, it's more like canada than the united states, so tend to be more democratic (love thy neighbor etc).
Vexonte@reddit
And Olmstead. This is a common trend, but MN is a good example of it. "Rocks and cows" was a talking point for a while, though it was taken out of context.
Washington vs Seattle has a similar dynamic.
eodchop@reddit
85% of the population of Minnesota live in the twin cities, Duluth and Rochester.
prosperosniece@reddit
Smart
William_Redmond@reddit
We have a little blue (well, purple) county in the western part of the state. It's not much, but we're proud of it.
Real-Psychology-4261@reddit
The rural parts aren’t as red as the rural parts of some very conservative states, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area suburbs are getting bluer and growing quicker than the rural areas.
donac@reddit
You know, Wisconsin used to be this way, too. Rural used to mean more "mind your own business" than "everyone needs to be what I want them to be." Times change, I guess.
notthegoatseguy@reddit
Minnesota flirted pretty hard with Trump in 2016, with Hillary failing to crack 50%. Biden fixed that in 2020, and Harris was able to sustain a majority of the vote.
Minnesota has had competitive Gov elections in 2010 and 2014 but Dems have built a pretty solid majority.
Their Senate chamber is evenly split, but Dems have a majority in the House.
But things can always change. Ohio was at one point the swing state, but it continues to drift rightward unless you put an issue on the ballot. Strangely, Dems can win on issues like abortion and union ballot measures that have happened, but haven't gotten that to translate to people voting for Democratic candidates.
AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit
I wouldnt say they flirted with Trump as much as Hillary was very unpopular. Both candidates were unpopular overall.
Roadshell@reddit
Yes
AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit
Yes and also yes. Its not just the Iron Range. Cook County, on the Canadian border with Lake Superior, with no big cities, was the 3rd bluest county per capita in MN this past election. Only Ramsey and Hennepin went bluer.
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
This response explains it all!
Writes4Living@reddit
Minnesota has more liberal voters than conservative voters but it is not a solid blue state. You need to look at the 2024 presidential election map by county in Minnesota. Parts of MN are red but the state as a whole is blue because more vote blue.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election_in_Minnesota
Daped01@reddit
I want to say something to the tune of 65% of the state population lives in the twin cities metro area
GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit
Man, why are you so obsessed with this topic?
Current_Poster@reddit
Obsessbot! Do the light work! :D
mads_61@reddit
Yes, the Minneapolis/St Paul metro has a large population and much of the metro votes blue. But there are areas up north around Duluth and the Iron Range that have historically been very blue (less so now) because of strong unions.
This is for national elections though. State wide elections are not solidly blue. We’ve had Republican (and independent) governors and the state house and senate aren’t always blue.
Current_Poster@reddit
This is about MA, not MN, but it's worth repeating: https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/12tgbf8/the_horrifying_realization_that_people_are/
kjk050798@reddit
3.7 million people live in the metro compared to the 5.7 million that live in the whole state.
It’s not like the metro all votes democrat, or the rural all votes republican. There’s a bit of mix. I will say a lot of families have moved up here since we have enshrined trans rights in our state constitution.