5 Maps That Explain Minnesota's 2018 Elections

MINNESOTA — It's not only important to understand who won an election, but also how they one. One of the best ways to display election data is through maps.

This week. the Secretary of State Office published several maps show results, county by county, and district by district.

Here are five maps that explain Minnesota's 2018 midterm elections:

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1. In the race for governor, Democrat Tim Walz won with support from not only the counties in the Twin Cities metro, but also the Iron Range in northern Minnesota as well as rural counties in the west and southeast parts of the state.

2. Democrat Keith Ellison lost most of Minnesota's counties, but won his race over Doug Wardlow in the race for attorney general by dominating in the state's highly-populated urban counties and in the Iron Range.

3. The Twin Cities metro became more blue Tuesday when Republican incumbents in the U.S. House (Jason Lewis and Erik Paulsen) lost the Second and Third districts to DFL challengers Angie Craig and Dean Phillips. The Fifth and Fourth districts stayed blue.

The northeastern and southern parts of the state — which include the Eighth District and the First — both flipped from Democratic to Republican-control Tuesday night.

The eastern half (the Seventh District) stayed blue, and central Minnesota (the sixth district) stayed red.

4. More so than any other candidate Tuesday, Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar dominated in both urban and rural counties across the state.

5. Democrat Sen. Tina Smith's victory over Republican Karin Housley was much more narrow. Similar to Keith Ellison, Smith's path to winning Tuesday relied on dominating in metro districts and in the Iron Rage.

Also read: 6 stories from the election you may have missed.

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All maps courtesy of the Minnesota Secretary of State Office, used with permission