'Can't lose any more ground': Democrats try to slow red wave in rural Minnesota
ORTONVILLE, MINN. — For decades, Democrats dominated in places like this small town on Minnesota's western edge, where miles of flat farmland give way to the shores of Big Stone Lake and the storefronts that line its historic main street. The mostly Scandinavian farmers who settled in the west-central region of the state flocked to the populist movements in the early part of the 20th century that eventually merged to create Minnesota's modern day Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. It's now been a decade since voters here elected a Democrat to represent them in the state Legislature. In 2020, residents in western Minnesota decisively ousted Collin Peterson, one of the last rural Democrats left standing in Congress.
"My grandparents were strong Democrats, this was a Democratic area and I think just over time the tides have really turned," said Kari Dorry, a teacher from Ortonville who is trying to stem the party's losses in her run for a rural state Senate seat. "It is kind of daunting, but I also think it's really motivating. We've got to try."
It's a familiar storyline playing out across rural Minnesota and the nation. Areas once amenable to a Democrat with the right message are now shutting out some of those same candidates, exacerbating geographic political divides and limiting places for the party to make inroads in the battle to control the Legislature and Congress. Donald Trump accelerated the trend. The Republican flipped 19 counties in greater Minnesota in 2016 that had voted twice for Barack Obama. Despite Joe Biden's decisive 2020 victory in Minnesota, the Democrat flipped back just four counties outside of the metro.
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Peterson hung onto the rural Seventh District in Congress for three decades by focusing on agriculture and holding conservative positions on abortion and gun rights. Former U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar served nearly four decades representing the northeastern Eighth District as a pro-labor Democrat who delivered on infrastructure and jobs. Now, many Democrats write off those districts as unwinnable. In the last election, it became too much: He decisively lost to Republican Michelle Fischbach, in part because he said he was labeled by what other Democrats were doing, not what he was doing in Washington. Republicans have also dramatically chipped away at the DFL's dominance in northeastern Minnesota over the last decade, using environmental concerns over mining as a wedge issue. Two longtime DFL state senators from the region left their caucus in 2020, and the remaining Democrats will be inundated with attacks this fall as Republicans attempt to take full control of the Legislature.
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In 1990, Peterson said 31 legislative Democrats served within the boundaries of the Seventh District. Now there are three. Fewer than a half-dozen Democrats serve in the entire 134-seat state House who represent truly rural districts, and only a couple in the state Senate, a reality that has shut the party out of power in the chamber since 2016.
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Conversations about safety and police reform that dominate in the metro look different in her community, where safety means having a hospital nearby and a fully-funded fire department. Dorry, a mother of three teenage sons, focuses on issues where there's common ground: strong schools and access to affordable health care and child care.
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https://www.startribune.com/cant-lose-any-more-ground-democrats-try-to-slow-red-wave-in-rural-minnesota/600155499/
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