Minnesota voters assembled at the polls for midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The majority in the United States Senate and the Minnesota House of Representatives was shifted to the Republicans.
However, Minnesota voters favored Democratic candidates. The voter turnout was just above 50 percent, short of the 55-60 percent predicted for this election.
“Midterms generally come with low voter turnouts,” Sophomore Co-President of College Democrats Peter Bode said.
Governor and Senator races were not viewed as close, as was the case with six of the eight state’s U.S. House of Representative races, potentially a reason the turnouts were lower than predicted
Throughout election season, Gustavus College Democrats and College Republicans worked together to try and combat a low voter turnout by encouraging students to exercise their right to vote and making voting more accessible for students on The Hill.
“On election day, the College Democrats and College Republicans co-funded a shuttle bus from Gustavus to the polls. It’s a good example of our generation focused on working together,” Bode said.
Sophomore College Republicans Co-Chair Jacob Johnson explained how Democrats and Republicans worked together solely to inspire voting.
“We simply encouraged people to vote as opposed to trying to encourage them to vote for one of our sides as it has been up until this point,” Johnson said.
Both organizations also collaborated in order to host a community discussion on Thursday, Oct. 30 between the two candidates who ran for State Representative, Kim Spears and Clark Johnson.
However, both College Democrats and College Republicans worked hard to campaign for their individual candidates as well. They door-knocked in residence halls on campus as well as in the St. Peter and North Mankato communities. They also took advantage of social media to spread the word about the candidates.
The College Democrats hosted U.S. Senator Al Franken, Lt. Governor-elect Tina Smith, and Representative Clark Johnson on campus on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
“Al Franken was here and he explained to people why it’s so important to vote,” Bode said.
The College Republicans helped campaign with Minnesota House of Representatives District 19A Republican candidate Kim Spears.
“We teamed up with representative Kim Spears to door-knock on campus and in the community,” Johnson said.
Despite the College Republicans best efforts, Minnesota favored Democratic incumbents in the midterm elections.
Minnesota reelected Democratic Governor Mark Dayton. The election was called for Dayton just minutes after the polls closed, in stark contrast to the 2010 gubernatorial election when votes had to be recounted and results were not known until days later.
Dayton ran against Republican candidate Jeff Johnson who obtained 44.51 percent of the vote. Dayton won with 50.07 percent of the vote. This is the first time Dayton has been reelected to any office. Minnesota’s last 28 years of gubernatorial elections show a trend of voting out Democratic Farmer Labor candidates after one term according to twincities.com.
“[Dayton] became the first Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor since Rudy Perpich in 1986 to be elected to a second consecutive term,” Bill Salisbury of the Pioneer Press said.
District 19A also reelected Democratic State Representative Clark Johnson to his second term in the Minnesota House of Representatives. His opponent, Republican candidate Kim Spears, acquired 45.78 percent of the votes, while Johnson won with 54.08 percent of the votes.
While the St. Peter area elected a Democratic candidate to the House, the Republicans are now in control of the Minnesota House of Representatives after eleven incumbent Democrats were voted out on Tuesday. Even though Minnesota elected a Democrat to be governor and Democrats remain in control of the state Senate, Minnesota now has a balance of power in the state legislature.
Senator Al Franken was reelected to the U.S. Senate for a second term. Franken defeated his Republican opponent Mike McFadden with 53.15 percent of the votes over McFadden’s 42.91 percent of the votes.
Minnesota’s reelection of DFL-er Al Franken contradicted the national trends as the power in the U.S. Senate shifted to the Republicans. Seven Democratic U.S. Senators were voted out in the Tuesday elections. Republicans retained control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The U.S. Congress is now controlled by Republicans while a Democrat holds the Oval Office.
It remains to be seen how the shifts in power both in Minnesota and in the United States will affect the state and the country.
-Rachael Manser
