Suburban Minnesota Has Moved Left, And Republicans Are Running Out Of Road In Elections

ST. PAUL, MN — Republican Lisa Demuth carried most of Minnesota's counties in Tuesday's governor's race and still lost by nearly 13 points.

A new Minnesota Star Tribune analysis explains why: the state's most populous counties, including suburbs that voted Republican for years, now turn out Democratic margins big enough to swamp the GOP's rural base, leaving Republicans without a statewide win since 2006.

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Gov.-elect Amy Klobuchar's advantage in Hennepin County alone topped Demuth's combined margin across every county she won, and Klobuchar's net votes overall were more than 2.5 times Demuth's, according to the newspaper's county-by-county breakdown of Secretary of State results.

The suburban turn dates to 2018, when Dakota and Washington counties backed the Democratic candidate for governor for the first time in years.

Four years later, Tim Walz won re-election while carrying just 13 counties. It's a far cry from 2002, when Tim Pawlenty carried 61 counties by a combined 248,000 votes and lost Hennepin by only about 3,000.

Check out the full analysis at the Star Tribune.