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ST. PAUL, Minnesota – For decades, the simplistic marriage of the Minnesota Democratic Party with the Farmers-Labor Party organized by Hubert Humphrey created a populist grassland machine that ruled the state.
Republicans have not won the electoral franchise in Minnesota since 1972. No Republican candidate has been a candidate for a seat in the US Senate nor has the governorship won more than 50% of the vote since Arne Carlson in 1994.
But now, as the largest cities in Minnesota swarm and rural communities lose both their population and their economic power, this coalition collapses, fractured by tensions between city-dwellers and city-dwellers worried about their future.
The Democratic-Peasant-Labor Party, worried about it, is losing the peasant and the worker.
"The Democrats have lost attention to the problems of the kitchen table in general and blue-collar jobs in particular," said Jason George, Commercial Director of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 49 , a union representing miners from Iron Range, Minnesota. "The far left is trying to suppress these jobs. You can not tell people that you are with them when your party is trying to cut jobs. "
President Trump
The CEO of Donald John TrumpUber withdraws from the conference on Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of Khashoggi Don Lemon: The meeting of Kanye West with Trump was a "show of minstrels". Having lost Minnesota by only 45,000 votes in 2016, the Republican closest to victory since the re-election of Ronald Reagan in 1984. Trump became the first Republican to win shares in the Iron Range Iron Minnesota chain, as Itasca County in the northeast corner of the state. since Herbert Hoover in 1928.
"You are very anxious about the economic situation, small towns are drying up, jobs are disappearing and people are thinking of being left behind," said Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic Democrat-Peasant-Labor Party. "The messages conveyed by the Democrats simply did not resonate with voters."
Minnesota's political observers said the Republicans had won in historically democratic areas of the state, after the government of former President Obama and Governor Mark Dayton (D) struck hard, who will step down this year after two terms.
First, the Obama administration has decided to block the Keystone XL pipeline in the Dakotas. The administration then decided to limit the exploitation of copper and nickel in the iron chain, which is home to one of the richest deposits on the planet.
In St. Paul, Dayton signed a measure in 2015 forcing farmers to leave a buffer zone of up to 50 feet between their fields and lakes, rivers and streams. This reduction in the amount of land that farmers could use to grow their crops, limiting income for an agricultural industry already struggling for its survival.
"You've lost productivity and the ability to grow a crop," said Kevin Paap, a fourth-generation corn and soybean grower in Blue Earth County and president of the state's Farm Bureau. "Many have the impression that it was a catch."
Traditionally Democratic unionized workers and traditional democratic farmers viewed these initiatives as an incursion by big city liberals into their lifestyle of small towns.
"If any of the twin cities says," We know better than you, you do not know what you're talking about, "it's really condescending, that causes a lot of anger, and I understand." . "Frankly, it really pisses me off."
The agricultural and mining communities of Minnesota once held much more political power than today. Of the 57 counties in Minnesota with fewer than 35,000 inhabitants, 43 have lost their population since 2010.
Meanwhile, urban areas are booming. The five largest counties in Minnesota have seen an average population increase of 5% since 2010. The per capita gross domestic product of the Minneapolis-St. The metropolitan area of Paul is up 10% since the recession.
Today, the two counties that comprise the Twin Cities account for almost 30% of Minnesota's population, one-third more than in the Second World War.
As Minnesota's urban core grew stronger, environmental problems became more important for the Democratic base. Environmental groups are now considered one of the party's main funders, alongside trial lawyers.
On the other hand, rural communities feel less connected to the Democratic Party, their political home for so long. Now these communities are getting red. Trump won 19 counties in Minnesota that voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, described a "cleavage" between labor groups that have traditionally supported Democratic candidates and environmentalists, who now make up a larger share of party activists.
"There is this tension between job creation and the environment that I think has pushed many of these people away from the Democratic Party, which is much more competitive," Martin said. "What you see in northeastern Minnesota is reminiscent of what you see in much of the industrial Midwest."
Tension is evident in much of the country, where urban communities vote more heavily and force the Democratic Party to the left, while rural areas congregate around the Republican Party.
Clinton won more votes on the 25 largest counties in the country than Obama in 2012, and Trump got fewer votes than Mitt Romney
Countdown to Willard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyElection: Florida candidates face a new test after a hurricane | GOP optimistic about widening Senate majority | High-level dems begin to head to Iowa | Bloomberg joins Dems | Trump goes to rally in Pennsylvania Dem hopes the majority of the House will gather in Minnesota suburbs, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, visit Arizona to reinforce Martha McSally PLUS four years ago. But Trump has accumulated huge margins in rural areas, recovering dozens of counties that had historically voted for democracy and that Obama had won twice.
The political terrain in Minnesota has been slower to realign than in other states such as West Virginia and Kentucky, where blue-collar Democrats and yellow dogs have found a new home in the Republican Party. Three Democrats – Representatives Tim Walz
Timothy (Tim) James WalzThe Morning's Morning Report – Kavanaugh and the Ford Saga Are Nearing the Bitter End The House's battleground is expanding as the pub wars are reaching their peak The countdown Countdown to Elections: Trump is Confident about Intermediate Results of Hill.TV Interview | Kavanaugh controversy tests the candidates | Sanders, Warren wonder if both can run | Super PACs are spending big | Two states open voting in general elections Friday | Latest Senate polls PLUS, Collin Peterson
Collin Clark PetersonAnti-Abortion Rights: Demon candidates diminish as party changes party Congress allows agricultural bills to expire before deadline for reauthorization of the Senate set different visions for the SNAP PLUS program and Rick Nolan
Richard (Rick) Michael NolanBezos honored for his public service on the battlefield of the DC Gala House, is expanding as the war heralds new heights. Trump is wrong, Dems is fighting to save Medicare and Social Security. – still occupy rural seats in Congress in Minnesota.
At the same time, Republican representatives. Erik Paulsen
Erik Philip PaulsenDem hopes that the majority of the House will meet in the suburbs of Minnesota. The Morning's Morning – The Kavanaugh and Ford saga is coming to an end. How the Trump Tax Law Was Passed: The Last Line Up MORE and Jason Lewis
Jason Mark LewisDem hopes for a majority in the House in the suburbs of Minnesota Kavanaugh becomes a new mid-point strength, defined by anger Countdown to the elections: large numbers of fundraisers for the Senate | Haley resigns by surprise says she will support Trump in 2020 | Sanders in mid-term track | Collins becomes the first target of the Dem | To remember from the Senate debate of Indiana PLUS hold two other suburban seats that touch the twin cities.
But just as Appalachian voters have found a new home within the GOP, the realignment that resembles what the locals call the Greater Minnesota region, apart from twin cities.
Paulsen and Lewis are among the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress. They fought for their political life a year when dissatisfied suburban voters of President Trump declared that they would support the Democrats.
And Republicans consider the Walz and Nolan districts to be their best chances of winning Democrat seats on difficult ground; Walz is a governor candidate and Nolan has chosen to run as a lieutenant governor instead of running for office.
"Minnesota is emblematic of the problem of Democrats in the rest of the country," said George. The DFL, he said, "dropped F and L."
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