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Former Vice President of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks with Duluth Mayor Emily Larson, second from left, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at the Amazing Grace Bakery & Cafe in Duluth, Minnesota on Friday, 18 September 2020. (AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster)
DULUTH, Minn. – A solidly blue state for the past half century, Minnesota became an unquestionable presidential battleground on Friday as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden fought for working-class voters in mourning events that ushered in early voting.
Candidates steered clear of the state’s most populated areas near Minneapolis to focus on working-class voters, some of whom became Republicans for the first time in 2016. Trump was heading to Bemidji, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) away. north of Minneapolis, while Biden campaigned in a Duluth suburb on the shores of Lake Superior and near the Wisconsin border.
Biden lashed out at Trump’s inability to control the pandemic, pointing to the president’s reluctance to adopt more serious social distancing safeguards like “neglect and selfishness” that cost American lives. In the training room of a carpenters union, he also emphasized his plans to boost American manufacturing.
“It’s time to reward hard work in America and not wealth,” Biden declared with about a dozen workers watching.
“When the government spends taxpayer money, we must spend that money to buy American products made by American workers and American supply chains to generate American growth,” Biden said. He promised to invest $ 400 billion in federal money during his first term to ensure that more products are made in America.
Since narrowly losing Minnesota in 2016, Trump has emphasized the state in hopes that a victory this year could offset losses in other states. He has visited regularly and been attentive to issues of particular importance to the rural corners of the state. It has reversed a policy of the Obama administration that prohibits the development of copper and nickel mining and has rescued soybeans, corn and other farmers that have been affected by the trade confrontations with China.
More recently, it adopted a “law and order” message aimed at white voters in rural and suburban areas who may be concerned about protests that have turned violent at times. That’s especially true in Minnesota, where the murder of George Floyd in May by a police officer sparked a nationwide settling of scores on racism.
But for all the work Trump has done in the state, he may elude him again in November.
A series of polls over the past week show that Biden has built a consistent lead in Minnesota. And in the 2018 midterm elections, Democratic turnout increased in the suburbs, small towns and even in the Cordillera del Hierro, in working-class mining towns that were once labor strongholds but had had a Republican lean.
David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, which has produced anti-Biden ads, said Minnesota can help Trump’s campaign gain momentum.
“They’re looking beyond the poll numbers and seeing the potential there,” said McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman. “It’s always a smart strategy to go on the offense somewhere.”
In 2018, Democrats swapped two suburban constituencies, regained control of the State House by winning suburban voting areas from Trump, and came within one seat of gaining control of the State Senate. Democrats won every state election that year, even when they lost a rural constituency.
Trump’s path to success in Minnesota will likely hinge on finding more votes in rural and conservative areas, increasing the score beyond his 2016 tally. It is a strategy he is trying to carry out in other states and depends on an operation. Solid field with the money and time to track infrequent or new voters. That could be a tall order, since Minnesota already has one of the highest voter turnout rates in the country.
“I don’t think they’re there,” said Joe Radinovich, a Democrat who lost a nomination for a northern Minnesota congressional district in 2018. Radinovich noted the huge organizational challenge and expense of tracking new voters, making sure they’re registered, and getting to vote, especially during a pandemic. “We already have a relatively high turnout. Most people vote. I just don’t think it’s there. I think those people showed up in 2016, ”he said.
In 2016, Trump won that district, which includes the Democratic city of Duluth, by 15 percentage points. But in the midterm elections two years later, Radinovich lost by just under 6 percentage points.
Still, Trump has spent more than a year building a sizable running game in Minnesota. Republicans are knocking on doors and personally interacting with voters in a way that most Democrats have not, preferring online operations due to the coronavirus.
The president’s re-election campaign this week announced a $ 10 million ad buy in a number of states, including Minnesota. It has spent nearly $ 17 million on advertising in the state since last October, compared to nearly $ 6.3 million for Biden during the same period, according to a review of Kantar / CMAG data by The Associated Press.
Democrats warn that Biden may still have a lot of work ahead of him.
Duluth Mayor Emily Larson said Trump’s campaign has far outperformed Biden on local yard signs, indicating enthusiasm but ultimately may not affect the outcome.
“One of the things that the Trump campaign has been very good at is visibility in Duluth, but also in areas around Duluth,” Larson said.
After Biden’s speech, his caravan reached downtown Duluth, where he stepped out onto a brick plaza in front of Little Angie’s Cantina and Grill and began rubbing shoulders and chatting with passersby.
Within minutes, a crowd of around 200 gathered, virtually all in masks except for two men in Trump hats. It was the largest in-person crowd Biden has had since the pandemic broke out in March.
A man yelled from a terrace above the square: “Go home, Joe!”
Two women closest to Biden replied, “You’re home, Joe.”
JPV
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