Democrats in Minnesota and President Joe Biden’s campaign for reelection are challenging former President Donald Trump’s claim that he can flip reliably blue Minnesota.
Minnesota has not voted for a Republican for president since 1972. In 2020, Biden beat Trump in Minnesota by more than 233,000 (or 7 percentage points), and in 2016, former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton beat Trump by more than 43,000 votes in Minnesota.
“President Biden will win,” Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) said. “No surprise Donald Trump is saying something that is not true.”
“But we don’t take it for granted. We will have the infrastructure necessary,” Walz said. “So the head fake of saying that you’re going to win Minnesota? Give it a good try, but we’ll do our work.”
On Friday, Trump is set to headline a dinner for the Republican Party of Minnesota in St. Paul, marking his first visit to the state so far on the campaign trail. Right now, the dinner is not set to conflict with the graduation of Donald Trump’s son, Barron Trump, from a high school in Florida that same day.
Earlier this month, the Trump campaign put the states of Minnesota and Virginia, which has also voted blue, on its radar for the campaign as flippable states.
“We have a real, real opportunity in expanding the map in Virginia and Minnesota,” senior Trump adviser Chris LaCivita told NBC News.
Trump also believes he has a “really good shot” at the state.
“We think we have a really good shot at Minnesota,” Trump said. “We have great friendships up there. We’ve done a lot for industry. We’ve done a lot for everything in Minnesota. Worked hard in Minnesota. Tom Emmer is very much involved.”
Democrats, while countering the Trump campaign’s eye on Minnesota and Virginia, are not taking either state for granted.
“Fundamentally, what we’re doing in Minnesota and Virginia is … not taking any state or any vote for granted. We’ve had a team on the ground in both those places, working hard to engage voters, build trust in the community as we open offices, increase our staff footprint,” Dan Kanninen, the battleground states director for the Biden campaign, said.
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Minnesota heavily favors abortion rights and does not have a high population of non-college-educated, blue-collar workers who typically vote for Trump.
“You have a state that just fundamentally disagrees with Donald Trump on so many of his viewpoints and his priorities and, most of all, his character,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said. “I mean, if you want the opposite of ‘Minnesota nice,’ then go elect Donald Trump.”
