Voters in Minnesota made their pick for president while holding negative views about the country’s direction, according to an expansive AP survey of the American electorate.
The race between President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden concluded Tuesday as the nation remains in the throes of a global public health crisis and mired in the economic downturn it brought on. AP VoteCast found that 36% of Minnesota voters said the U.S. is on the right track and 64% of voters said it is headed in the wrong direction.
Minnesota hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon nearly a half century ago. Trump narrowly lost the state to Hillary Clinton in 2016, but has vowed to win it this time and capture its 10 electoral votes.
The Democrats are hoping to build on success in the 2018 midterm when they picked up support in Iron Range mining towns, where voters had been trending Republican, and other rural, working-class areas.
Here’s a snapshot of who voted and what matters to them, based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of about 127,000 voters and nonvoters — including 3,519 voters and 440 nonvoters in Minnesota — conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
FACING THE PANDEMIC
The coronavirus pandemic has spread through the U.S. for roughly eight months, killing more than 230,000 Americans. Overall, 18% of voters said the virus in the U.S. is completely or mostly under control, and 29% said it’s somewhat under control. Fifty-three percent of voters think the coronavirus is not at all under control in this country.
Biden has slammed the president for “negligence and selfishness” in his response to the coronavirus. Minnesota was hitting record new cases before the election.
The pandemic is also responsible for another record that could shape the outcome of the election: Minnesotans have voted absentee in record numbers this year, and counting ballots may take up to a week after Election Day.
Jared Vincent, a 29-year-old data analyst who voted for Biden, said he believes the former vice president will listen to the advice of experts and scientists, unlike the current president, and act more aggressively against the virus.
The virus response “has been very reactionary,” said Vincent, who lives in Minneapolis. “I probably would have voted the same way, but it made it stronger.”
Trump voter Greg Janacek, 45, of Blaine, said the government response to the pandemic could have been better but overall he is satisfied with it.
“It’s a good balance of staying open but still protecting our citizens,” he said.
ON THE ISSUES
The coronavirus pandemic was top of mind for many voters in Minnesota. Forty-three percent said it is the most important issue facing the country today.
Voters also considered the economy a major issue, with 25% saying it ranked at the top.
Ten percent named health care, 5% named racism and 5% named climate change.
Dan Giesen, 56, of Minneapolis, said he leans conservative but he voted for Biden this time.
“People he has appointed like Bill Barr have been undermining our institutions like the Department of Justice and using them in a political manner instead of in an independent manner (and) I think that is destroying the foundations of our democratic government,” he said. “I think we can deal with partisan differences when our institutions and our norms are in place, but I think that those are being seriously eroded under Donald Trump.”
NATIONAL ECONOMY
Voters were more negative than positive in their assessments of the nation’s economy. Overall, 43% described economic conditions in the U.S. as excellent or good, and 57% called them not so good or poor.
Trump is hoping his embrace of the mining industry and his financial aid to farmers in a state hit hard by the China trade war will help him edge out a victory.
Biden told supporters in a speech in the Duluth area before the election that his policies would help support American manufacturing. The trip reflected his campaign’s focus on rural, blue collar areas outside the reliably Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
RACE FOR SENATE
In a race for the Senate, Democratic incumbent Tina Smith is looking to fend off a challenge from Jason Lewis, a one-term former congressman who has tied himself to Trump’s fate this election. Lewis has campaigned with the president, flown on Air Force One with him and repeatedly echoed the president’s position, blasting coronavirus restrictions and supporting the president’s law-and-order stance.
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AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for Fox News, NPR, PBS NewsHour, Univision News, USA Today Network, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press. The survey of 3,519 voters in Minnesota was conducted for eight days, concluding as polls closed. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The survey combines a random sample of registered voters drawn from the state voter file and self-identified registered voters selected from nonprobability online panels. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. Find more details about AP VoteCast’s methodology at https://ap.org/votecast.
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For AP’s complete coverage of the U.S. presidential elections: https://apnews.com/election2020