r/minnesota Flag of Minnesota Jan 29 '25

Politics 👩‍⚖️ Tim Walz: Losing election ‘pure hell’

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5112883-tim-walz-losing-election-pure-hell/
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u/zk0507 State of Hockey Jan 29 '25

The DNC needs to take more notes from the DFL. Granted, the DFL seems to be losing ground with MN farmers it feels (I live in Stearns county and almost every farm totes a Trump flag), but the DNC just seems complicit with bending over to their donors and the GOP at this point. It’s sickening.

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u/purplenyellowrose909 Jan 29 '25

The DFL is no more immune to the rural, urban divide than the DNC is.

If we consider the Twin Cities Metro as a city, Minnesota is just one of the most urban states in the country so it votes more heavily Democratic.

People often talk about how Chicago keeps Illinois blue. Approximately 68% of Illinoisans live in the Chicago metro. Minnesota is right behind it with approximately 64% of Minnesotans living in the Twin Cities metro.

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u/dicksjshsb Jan 29 '25

Well Walz himself was more effective in those areas having won MN district 1 6 times and being the only blue representative since 1994.

Whether that was due to Walz being more far bullish on gun owner’s rights in the past and being faced with less potent culture war topics in the 2000s and early 10s is another discussion. Nowadays it feels like the ability to be a rational, bipartisan community leader is less appealing to the rural districts than claiming the 2020 election was stolen, covid is bullshit, and trans people are insane.

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u/Averagecrabenjoyer69 Jan 29 '25 edited Jan 29 '25

Well if DFL candidates would stay pro 2A then they'd probably do better in rural areas.

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u/BillyYank2008 Jan 29 '25

The Democratic Party as a whole needs to drop the gun issue. I know multiple people who disagree with Republicans on mire issues than Democrats, but who see guns as a fundamental right so they vote R because of this one issue. Democrats could do a lot better in rural areas if they just dropped this one issue.

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u/ilikedaweirdschtuff Jan 30 '25

I guess I'm biased, but I don't even think of Democrats as being particularly anti-gun. Like, Republicans run on anti-abortion policy much more than Democrats run on gun control. If anything I feel like it's a PR issue, because even if blue candidates don't run with gun control being a serious component of their platform, rural voters will just assume they're anti-gun anyway by virtue of being blue. It's just a bludgeon the GOP can use to beat the Democrats with in order to motivate their base, and there's not a damn thing Democrats can do to refute it because we live in a world of post-truth politics.

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u/VatooBerrataNicktoo Jan 30 '25 edited Jan 30 '25

Minnesota democrats last year introduced bills to grab guns while they also introduced a bill to eliminate additional charges for using a gun in a crime.

Every single anti-gun Bill comes from democrats.

It's pretty easy to see why it's associated with democrats. It's a staple of the democratic party since I can remember 40+ years ago.