IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Can The DFL Reconnect With Rural Minnesotans?

St. Paul, Minn. –  Today, MinnPost declared that “the DFL no longer is a statewide party,” confirming what observers have watched over the past several years as the number of DFL has watched election returns in Greater Minnesota shrink. Minnesota Jobs Coalition Executive Director John Rouleau issued the following statement in response.

“With their constant obsession on appeasing the most liberal factions of their party in Minneapolis it’s no surprise that the DFL continues to see their influence statewide shrink. Minnesotans have spoken repeatedly about the need for balance, but the DFL refuses to listen and instead continues to pander to the metro leaving Greater Minnesota behind.”

Can the DFL reconnect with rural Minnesotans?

Doug Grow, MinnPost 08/01/17

If you look at the electoral map of Minnesota in 2016, it’s possible to conclude that the DFL no longer is a statewide party.

One little exercise brings that point home: If you subtract all the votes cast in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties in the 2016 election, Donald Trump would have easily carried Minnesota, with 58 percent of the vote.

As it was, Hillary Clinton defeated Trump, with 46.1 percent of the statewide vote. But she carried just nine of the state’s 87 counties. And not only did Trump crush Clinton in Greater Minnesota, but Republicans won control of both houses of the Legislature…

In the name of inclusiveness, Larson says, the left wing of the DFL has become “rigid,” so much so that some of the DFL’s fixations have become something of a joke in large swaths of Greater Minnesota.

Read | Can the DFL reconnect with rural Minnesotans?