Donald Trump's long-shot hopes for winning Minnesota appear to have dimmed even further with the selection of the state's Gov. Tim Walz as Kamala Harris' running mate.
The former president has been fixated on expanding the map in November's general election, and Politico resurfaced a report from May showing that Trump remains bitter that he lost Minnesota although he campaigned there three months ago, during a break from his hush money trial, in an effort to flip the Midwestern state.
“I lose Minnesota,” he said in 2020, “I’m never coming back.”
Senior campaign advisers showed polling data to top donors in early May to argue that Minnesota and Virginia were two states that could be in play in November, but that seems even less likely with Walz joining the Democratic ticket after Harris replaced president Joe Biden and chose the governor as her vice presidential candidate.
“Minnesota is a blue state,” said Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy chair of the Minnesota Republican Party. “On a good day for Republicans, it can be a little bit of Vikings purple.”
No GOP presidential candidate has won the state since Richard Nixon in 1972, and no Republican has won a statewide race since Tim Pawlenty in 2006.
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“Minnesota remains an uphill climb for any statewide Republican candidate, but President Trump has a real shot here,” Pawlenty said. “Relative levels of voter turnout and President Trump’s performance in the suburbs will decide the election here."
Trump was focused on winning Minnesota in 2020 but lost by 7 points, and Walz dismissed his 2024 chances when asked by Politico back in May.
“The former president says a lot of things that aren’t true,” Walz said at the time. “Look, we’re a state of hockey. We know what a hat trick is: He was beaten in ‘16. He was beaten in ‘20. And he’ll lose in 2024.
"The Republican Party out here has about $50 in the bank. There is no ground game out here. I just don’t see how being in court every day — and then saying you’re going to win Minnesota — makes that happen.”
