The last Republican to win Minnesota was Richard Nixon in 1972. It’s generally considered a blue state, but in 2016, Donald Trump barely lost Minnesota by roughly 44,000 votes. According to a CNN report that aired Thursday evening, the state appears to be trending red and could be fertile ground for a Trump pickup in 2020. CNN’s Martin Savidge found that Minnesota voters are “more and more aligned” with President Trump. The mayor of Eveleth, Minn., Robert Vlaisavljevich, for example, votes Democrat locally but is a Trump supporter. “He’s our guy, he supports mining. He’s our guy.” He’s not alone. “Folks here say they didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the party left them,” Savidge reported.
Another resident, Melissa Axelson, whose husband works for a mining company, says she thinks Democrats have changed. “Conservative candidates seem to be more for the working person.” Mike Volker told CNN that “the Democrats kinda shifted more to the left and the Republicans are … the party for jobs.”
Most presidents who win reelection expand their base of support and Trump clearly hopes to do just that. Another state on the radar is New Mexico, where he had a rally earlier this week which had 45,000 people registered to attend. According to the campaign, 94 percent were from within the state, 40 percent were Latino, and 31 percent were Democrats. According to experts, New Mexico is in play for 2020.
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