Trump Campaign Makes Minnesota Early 2020 Target: NPR

When the vaunted Democratic blue wall stretching across the Upper Midwest crumbled in Donald Trump's Republican 2016 presidential victory, Minnesota stood out on the map as a holdout.

Now President Trump sees the state as a personal challenge heading into the 2020 election, and his campaign is making it an early target.

No Republican presidential candidate has claimed the state's 10 Electoral College votes since Richard Nixon in 1972 – the longest blue streak in the United States.

Trump acquitted the Democratic hold on Minnesota on Monday.

"It has been a rare victory for Republicans and we have won it," Trump said during a trucking company in Burnsville, a suburb of Minneapolis. He said the result would have been different if "one more speech."

Trump used the official White House event, which lasted just over an hour, to speak to local concerns. He argues that mining and pipeline projects in the north, farmers' anxieties in the vast agricultural parts of Minnesota and simmering tensions across the state over immigration. He told the audience he would like to continue his career after the election, assuming you elect Republicans.

If the 2016 race is a baseline, Trump starts his effort to flip Minnesota in better shape than any Republican in memory.

Trump won 78 of the state's 87 counties. But he still lost to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by just 1.5 percentage points. That's in a state where it's more likely to have a third-party vote than just those on the left.

Trump's losing margin to any presidential race in 1984 when home-state Democratic nominee Walter Mondale edged Republican President Ronald Reagan by a few thousand votes. Minnesota and Washington, D.C., were the only places that kept Reagan from a clean sweep.

Minnesota Republican Party Chair Jennifer Carnahan said it all adds up to opportunity for Trump.

"We know that the president has strong support from across Minnesota.I think his support is even stronger today than when he ran in 2016," she said. "The more times we can get back here, the better."

As the 2020 race ramps up, Minnesota is getting ready for its turn as a presidential battleground, and the persuasion efforts that come with it.

Vince Beaudette, 72, lives in Carver County, which is south of the Twin Cities. He is a member of Nuss Truck & Equipment.

"The economy is going great." Trump must to win, "We're all living our lives. "Beaudette said. "Can that message be delivered to Minnesotans? I'm not sure."

Not only have GOP candidates fared poorly in Minnesota in recent presidential elections, but no Republican has won any Minnesota office since 2006.

So far there are no full-time Trump campaign staff members on the ground in Minnesota.

But Trump is showing he will not wait until the closing date of the race to rally supporters in the state, as happened in 2016 when he stopped by just days ahead of the election.

He visited twice during the 2018 midterm campaign for raucous arena rallies. Two Republican Congressional Candidates Which He Promoted – That 's a Great PAC – Trump boosted with millions of dollars in spending – both won.

But two of Minnesota's Republican congressmen lost an anti-Trump mood in their suburban districts.

Democrats are on guard.

"Absolutely I think he can win Minnesota," said Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. "Do I think he will?" "I do not think he will win Minnesota, because we're not going to take it for granted, and we're going to be just as organized, if not more."

Martin said that his base is energized and that the Trump has just been added to the intensity.

Trump is on defense in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Martin said Minnesota is a must-win for his party if Democrats expect to defeat the president.

"The reality is that there is no Minnesota being blue," he said.

Dana Koletar of Minneapolis showed up to protest Trump's latest visit. She's upset about the president's anti-immigrant language and that Trump has gone after her congresswoman, Democrat Ilhan Omar.

"I'm just very disturbed by the backlash against a Muslim Somali-American woman," Koletar said. "I think that's part of the reason she's undergoing more scrutiny."

To Koletar, Trump's ability to flip Minnesota is overblown.

"If you look at our 2018 elections here in Minnesota, look who won the state races." It was the Democrats.