Politics of Minnesota


is known for a politically active citizenry. Minnesota has consistently high voter turnout, ranking highest or near-highest in recent elections. This is due in part to its same-day voter registration laws; previously unregistered voters can register on election day with evidence of residency.
The major political parties are the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party">Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party">Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party and the Republican Party of Minnesota, along with the state-recognized minor parties: Grassroots–Legalize Cannabis, Legal Marijuana Now, and the Libertarian Party of Minnesota. The DFL was founded in 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party merged. The party is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Supporters of the DFL are often referred to as "DFLers" in Minnesota as an alternative to "Democrats". The state Republican Party is affiliated with the national Republican Party.

History

Historically, the state was a Republican stronghold, never voting Democratic from statehood until 1932, however, since then it has voted Democratic all but thrice- 1952, 1956, and 1972. 1952 is also the last time the state voted for a non-incumbent Republican, and only once has the state voted to the right of the nation since. Minnesotans have voted for Democratic presidential candidates ever since 1976, more times consecutively than any other state outside of the South, and longer than any other ongoing streak. Minnesota and the District of Columbia were the only electoral votes not won by incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Minnesota voters instead chose former vice president and Senator Walter Mondale, a Minnesota native. Mondale or Hubert Humphrey were on the Democratic ticket as candidates for president or Vice President in the 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, and 1984 elections.
Historically, Republicans have come close to winning Minnesota—Ronald Reagan lost by a small margin in 1984, and Donald Trump was defeated by 44,593 votes in 2016. Trump's near-win has motivated the GOP to invest heavily in the state, matching resources allocated to other key Midwestern battlegrounds like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In the early 2000s, presidential campaigns have viewed the 27 electoral college votes from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa as a bloc that is subject to swing toward either major party, and equal in value to Florida's 27 electoral votes. This analysis resulted in dozens of visits by candidates in the final months of both the 2000 and 2004 campaigns.
However, in the 2008 United States presidential election, Barack Obama won the state by more than 10 percentage points.
Minnesota's congressional delegation is split with 4 Democratic and 4 Republican members of Congress and mostly has been split since the early 1990s.
In the 2006 mid-term election, Democrats were elected to all state offices except for governor and lieutenant governor, where Republicans Tim Pawlenty and Carol Molnau narrowly won reelection. The DFL also posted double-digit gains in both houses of the legislature, elected DFLer Amy Klobuchar to the U.S. Senate, and increased the Democratic U.S. House caucus by one, Tim Walz.
However, in the 2010 mid-terms, the 8th district, a Democratic stronghold for decades in the Iron Range, elected Republican Chip Cravaack over long-time incumbent Jim Oberstar, splitting the delegation again, 4 to 4. Republicans also captured both houses of the Minnesota Legislature for the first time in decades. However, Democratic candidate Mark Dayton won control of the governorship, making all of Minnesota's statewide elected officials Democrats. In the 2012 election, Democrat Rick Nolan recaptured Oberstar's seat, bringing the ratio to 5 Democrats and 3 Republicans again at the national level. They also captured majorities in both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature.
In 2016, Donald Trump was defeated by just 44,593 votes. Trump's near-win has motivated the GOP to invest heavily in the state, matching resources allocated to other key Midwestern battlegrounds like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
During the 2018 mid-term elections the Republican party recovered both the 8th district and the 1st district, as the former representative of the first district, Tim Walz ran for and was elected governor. The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party flipped two Twin Cities suburban districts, the 2nd and the 3rd district with candidates Angie Craig and Dean Phillips, which maintained the ratio of 5 Democrats and 3 Republicans representing Minnesota at the national level. The 2018 mid-term election also saw the election of Ilhan Omar as representative of Minnesota's 5th congressional district. She gained national recognition for her involvement with The Squad, a progressive group of four newly elected representatives including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

State legislature

From 1915 to 1973, elections to the Minnesota Legislature were nonpartisan, though members organized into a Conservative Caucus and a Liberal Caucus. Most Republicans joined the Conservatives and most Farmer Laborites joined the Liberals, while the Democrats were more split. The Farmer Labor Party was successful statewide in the 1930s but only controlled the Minnesota House of Representatives twice. The DFL had more success by the 1950s but was hampered by malapportionment in the legislative maps.

Redistricting

Redistricting has often been very contentious in Minnesota. For 1913, the legislature passed a legislative map which was litigated the following year, for reasons including malapportionment. The Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the map, following many other states in a pre-Reynolds v. Sims era. The legislature also passed a congressional map for the state's new tenth district. Like many agriculture-based states, Minnesota lost a congressional seat after the 1930 census. The then-Conservative controlled legislature passed a map which Governor Floyd Olson then vetoed. The House of Representatives attempted to overrule and force the state Secretary of State to implement the map. He was sued, and the case made its way through the state courts before going to the United States Supreme Court. In Smiley v. Holm, the Court overturned the State Supreme Court and struck down the map, leading congressional seats in the 1932 [United States House of Representatives elections|1932 House elections] to be elected held at-large. The next year, a new congressional map was passed and implemented, staying in place until 1961.
In 1958, a group of voters sued to overturn the still in place 1913 legislative maps, arguing the maps were grossly malapportioned. In Magraw v. Donovan, the courts agreed, but allowed the legislature time to redraw the maps. In 1959, the legislature passed a map which made minor changes, notably preserving the districts in Southeastern, Central, and Northeastern Minnesota. It increased the number of legislative districts in Hennepin and Ramsey County from 14 to 19. Voters again sued to overturn the legislative maps in 1964 under the principle of one man, one vote and again the court deferred to the legislature to redraw the maps. The legislature and Governor Karl Rolvaag fought over new maps, before one was signed into law in 1966.
In 1971, the legislature passed a new map during a special session, but Governor Wendell R. Anderson vetoed the map over its use of multimember districts in Minneapolis, Duluth, and the Iron Range to achieve an odd number of House and Senate seats, a longtime practice by the legislature. Voters also had sued to overturn the 1966 maps, and the federal district court intervened, drawing a map with 35 Senate districts and 105 House districts. In Minnesota State Senate v. Beens, the Supreme Court overturned the district court. The district court returned with a new plan, which brought the state legislature down to its current 67 senators and 134 representatives.

Regional differences

In 2020, Washington Post">Washington County, Minnesota">Washington Post released an article that categorized the state into five regions based on political attitudes: Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the suburban regions of those two cities, the Iron Range, a section of southeastern Minnesota, and the remaining parts of the state.
Greater Minnesota is a largely rural area that saw a significant swing toward Republicans in 2016, with Trump carrying every county. While Democrats hoped to win back voters in 2020 and 2024 by highlighting the negative impact of Trump's trade policies on agriculture, Republicans made further gains by, among others, promoting the benefits of the USMCA trade agreement.

Third-party movements

The progressive Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party, formed in 1920, provided three governors, four United States senators, and eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives from the 1920s until its merger with the Democratic Party in 1944.
The moderate Reform Party was able to elect the former mayor of Brooklyn Park, and former professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura to the governorship in 1998. The Minnesota branch of the Reform party split off from the national party due to unhappiness about Pat Buchanan's influence in the party, and was renamed the Independence Party. The Independence Party had been able to sustain sufficient support to maintain major party status until 2014.
The state's Green Party has elected several city council members and other local office-holders in Duluth, Minneapolis and Winona, and has made strong runs for state legislature during the past two election cycles. In 2000, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader received just over 5% of the presidential votes cast, gaining Major Party status for the party. The Green Party lost that status in 2004, but retains minor party status having exceeded a 2% threshold.
In the 2006 election, voters in Minneapolis approved a referendum to utilize the single transferable vote —commonly referred to as "instant-runoff voting" and "ranked choice voting"—in future city elections, which is expected to be a boon for third parties. The drive for IRV began in the 1990s as part of the Green Party's platform, although all political parties except the Republicans supported it in the Minneapolis referendum.

Government

Federal representation

U.S. Senate

Minnesota's two U.S. senators are elected at large:
Minnesota has eight congressional districts. There were 9th and 10th districts but they were eliminated in 1963 and 1933 respectively. Since the early 1960s, the state's congressional districts have been drawn by a judicial panel due to the legislature's failure to enact a redistricting plan after every decennial census.
U.S. House of Representatives:

John Pillsbury

served as the 8th Governor of Minnesota from January 7, 1876, to January 10, 1882. Pillsbury was a noted philanthropist and often anonymously donated funds to causes he favored. In particular, he helped the University of Minnesota recover from debt in its early years, and later served as a regent. Since then, he has become known as "The Father of the University". Pillsbury Hall at the University of Minnesota is named in his honor. He tried his hand at several different types of businesses, including hardware, real estate and lumber, though his greatest success came when he founded C.A. Pillsbury and Company along with his family.

Frank Kellogg

was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate from Minnesota in 1916 and served from March 4, 1917, to March 3, 1923. He was a delegate to the Fifth Conference of American States">United Nations Conference on International Organization">Conference of American States at Santiago, Chile in 1923, and served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom from 1923 to 1925. He was United States Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Calvin Coolidge 1925–1929. In 1928, he was awarded the Freedom of the City in Dublin, Ireland and in 1929 the government of France made him a member of the Legion of Honor. As Secretary of State, he coauthored the Kellogg-Briand Pact, signed in 1928. Proposed by its other namesake, French foreign minister Aristide Briand, the treaty intended to provide for "the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy". He was awarded the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition. He was associate judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice from 1930 to 1935.

Floyd B. Olson

served as the 22nd Governor of Minnesota from January 6, 1931, to August 22, 1936. He was a member of the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party, and was the first member of the Farmer–Labor Party to win the office of governor in Minnesota. The party, founded in 1918 had a good deal of success in Minnesota as a statewide third party, with three governors and four U.S. senators serving during the 1920s and 1930s. The party platform called for protection for farmers and labor union members, government ownership of some industries, and social security laws. There were unsuccessful attempts to develop the party into a national Farmer–Labor Party in the early 1920s. The Minnesota Democratic Party, led by Hubert H. Humphrey, was able to merge with the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party in 1944. Since 1944 the two parties together make up the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.

Harold Stassen

was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943 and a later perennial candidate for other offices, most notably and frequently President of the United States. At 31 he was the youngest governor to serve in Minnesota and was seen as an "up and comer" after delivering the keynote address at the 1940 Republican National Convention. At that convention, he helped secure the Republican Party nomination for Wendell Willkie. Stassen was a delegate at the San Francisco Conference that established the United Nations, and president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1948 to 1953.
Stassen was later best known for being a perennial candidate for the Republican Party nomination for president. His strongest bid for the presidential nomination was in 1948, when he won a series of upset victories in early primaries. Polls showed that he would beat Harry S. Truman if nominated. He lost the nomination to Thomas Dewey, however, who had already lost in the presidential election of 1944 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Stassen played a key role in the 1952 Republican contest when he released his delegates to Dwight D. Eisenhower. This helped Eisenhower to defeat Robert A. Taft on the first ballot. He served in the Eisenhower Administration, filling posts including director of the Mutual Security Administration and Special Assistant to the President for Disarmament. During this period he held cabinet rank and led a quixotic effort to "dump Nixon" at the 1956 Republican National Convention. Stassen gained a reputation as a liberal, particularly when, as president of the American Baptist Convention in 1963, he joined Martin [Luther King Jr.] in his march on Washington, D.C. He was a prime representative of the socially-progressive "Rockefeller Republican" wing of American Republicanism.

Hubert Humphrey

was the 38th Vice President of the United States, serving under President Lyndon Johnson. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party and Americans for Democratic Action. He served as mayor of Minneapolis from July 2, 1945, to November 30, 1948. In 1968 Humphrey was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the United States presidential election but lost to Republican Richard Nixon. In one of the most renowned speeches in American political history, Humphrey told the 1948 Democratic National Convention: "the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states' rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights," winning support for a pro-civil-rights plank in the Party's platform.

Eugene McCarthy

was a longtime member of the U.S. Congress. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1971. His anti-war stance and popularity prior to the 1968 Democratic National Convention likely convinced Lyndon Johnson to drop out of the race. In the 1968 presidential election, McCarthy unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for President of the United States to succeed incumbent Lyndon Johnson on an anti-Vietnam War platform. He would unsuccessfully seek the presidency five times altogether.

Orville Freeman

was a co-founder and chairman of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party and a three-term Governor of Minnesota, the first from the DFL. Freeman served as United States Secretary of Agriculture under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He recognized that needy people were starving just as grain surpluses had driven prices down. Freeman advocated farm exports and supported controls on production sometimes idling farm land for years. Freeman worked toward the pilot school breakfast program and is most often remembered for today's U.S. Food Stamp Program.

Walter Mondale

was the 42nd vice president of the United States under President Jimmy Carter. He was also a two-term United States Senator from Minnesota and the Democratic Party nominee for president in 1984 against the incumbent, Republican Ronald Reagan. Mondale suffered a crushing defeat as Reagan was re-elected in a landslide victory in which Mondale carried only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. Mondale also quickly stepped into the 2002 U.S. Senate race against Norm Coleman, when Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash two weeks before the election. Coleman narrowly won the election, 49.5% to 47.3%.

Paul Wellstone

was a two-term U.S. Senator from Minnesota. He was a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party and was a professor of political science at Carleton College before being elected to the Senate in 1990. Wellstone was in a line of left-of-center or progressive senators of the DFL. The first three, Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Walter F. Mondale, were all prominent in the national Democratic Party and Wellstone became a leading spokesman for the progressive wing in his time. He served in the Senate from 1991 until his death in a plane crash on October 25, 2002. His wife, Sheila, and daughter, Marcia, also died in the crash. They had two other grown children, David and Mark, who now co-chair the Wellstone Action nonprofit group.

Jesse Ventura

was elected the 38th Governor of Minnesota in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998 and served from January 4, 1999, to January 6, 2003, without seeking a second term. Ventura ran as a candidate for the Reform Party of Minnesota and narrowly, but unexpectedly beat the major-party candidates: Saint Paul mayor Norm Coleman and Minnesota Attorney General Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III. His campaign consisted of a combination of aggressive grassroots events and original television spots, designed by quirky advertising man Bill Hillsman, using the phrase "Don't vote for politics as usual." He spent considerably less than his opponents, and is widely regarded as one of the first candidates to effectively use the Internet as a medium of reaching out to voters in a political campaign. Ventura went on to gain the highest approval rating of any governor in Minnesota history, with some polls ranking his public approval as high as the 73% in 1999, despite controversial statements of his.