Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
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“One Minnesota” is an admirable aspiration and a positive political slogan. But even the inclusion of Gov. Tim Walz on the Democratic presidential ticket, the candidate who successfully ran on the slogan, hasn’t bridged deep divides straining our state. Like the rest of the nation, Minnesota is split along gender, generational, geographic, racial, educational and political lines.
That’s the clear conclusion coming from the Minnesota Star Tribune/MPR News/KARE 11 poll published Monday, which shows Democratic running mates Kamala Harris and Walz lead Republican running mates Donald Trump and JD Vance 48% to 43%.
Demographic distinctions, however, reflect a wider divide than that relatively tight race: 53% of men favor Trump/Vance compared with 37% of women, who favor Harris/Walz 59% to 35% (in each category some are undecided or prefer other candidates).
Voters under 50 are for Harris/Walz 53% to 38% while those older than 50 give a slight nod to Trump/Vance, 47% to 45%. And geographic gaps are enormous gulfs in many cases: The 64% for Harris/Walz in Hennepin and Ramsey counties drops to 40% in northern and southern Minnesota, while the 53% and 52% in the north and south supporting Trump/Vance drops dramatically to just 28% in Hennepin/Ramsey.
College/no college cleaves as well, with 54% of respondents with degrees choosing the Democrats compared with 37% for the Republicans, while those without degrees go for the GOP ticket 49% to 44%. White voters are nearly evenly split but nonwhites support for Harris/Walz more than triples Trump/Vance (72% to 20%). And not surprisingly, nearly every respondent identifying as a DFLer or Republican chose their respective standard-bearers.
Similar splits were evident among those polled on the issues of immigration, abortion and the economy. Most strikingly, however, there’s one question that seemed to be answered much more equally across all demographics: “Do you think democracy in our country is or is not currently being threatened?”