Having lived here in MN since 1985 (and in Wisconsin prior) I tend to share your skepticism with claims that Trump will carry Minnesota. That said, I’m a city administrator (yes conservative city administrators, while rare, do exist!)and I interact with lots of traditional personally conservative but left of center in elections type democrats. I’m hearing enough comments from these folks to sum my anecdotal “poll” as such: a few are voting for Trump, some say they will be supporting Johnson and many are just choosing to skip that race on the ballot. This was the state where Jesse Ventura won in a 3-way race with a plurality of the vote but nowhere near the majority (and the democrat coming in third) so if conservatives and independents vote Trump and traditional democrats don’t vote or vote third party... Trump can indeed pull this off. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Minnesota gives Johnson the largest percentage vote total in the nation. In recent days I’ve started saying if Trump can reach 43-47% of the vote here he could come out on top in Minnesota of all places. If Pence or Trump himself drops in for an airport rally in this state that would be a great sign that internal polls have MN in realistic striking distance.
Thank you ... excellent summary of where things stand there in Minnesota. I won’t ask where you work, but I’ll tell you that I love traveling out there when I can! I’ve canoed the Boundary Waters in the past, and I crossed the border at International Falls on my last trip back from northern Ontario in 2014.
Did you know that Donald Trump mounted a brief campaign for the Reform Party presidential nomination in 2000 -- at the urging of Ventura?