Donald Trump swept to a stunning win in the presidential election, claiming victory early this morning (Wed) after receiving a call from Hillary Clinton. Trump told cheering supporters Clinton “has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.” But he also added it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division: “To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum, who won another term in the 4th District, says “this election has unleashed a darkness in our society that must be confronted and never accomodated.” Another Clinton supporter said she feels “nauseous” about the outcome and another talked about going to Canada. But Joyce from Minnetonka said she’s really excited for the country: “I think we needed a lot of change. The health care rates are skyrocketing, and I think it’s a new excitement to bring America back to what he [Trump] said: to be great again.”
Minnesota bucked the national trend, giving Clinton about 43 thousand more votes than Trump, but Hamline University political analyst David Schultz says it’s the closest Republicans came to taking the state since 1984 when it was Reagan versus Mondale.
Like almost everything else last night, Minnesota’s U-S House races turned out basically the opposite of what analysts expected. The only race meeting pundits’ predictions was Republican Congressman Tom Emmer winning handily in the 6th Congressional District. In the 8th District, Democrat Rick Nolan by a narrow 21-hundred votes held off a challenge from Republican Stewart Mills, who was favored to win. In the 2nd District, Republican Jason Lewis beat Democrat Angie Craig — again not what analysts forecast. And in the 1st and 7th Districts, Democrats Tim Walz and Collin Peterson — who were expected to win handily — beat their Republican opponents only by narrow margins.
And Republicans have kept their majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives, while the state Senate at last check was still up in the air. House Speaker Kurt Daudt says, “More than anything it was folks rejecting the Obama and Dayton administration and their agenda, rejecting Obamacare and MNsure.” It means divided government continues in Minnesota, and Democratic Governor Mark Dayton will have a difficult time getting his agenda through during his last two years in office.