Even while the 2024 general election was a triumph for Republicans nationally, the party’s success was more muted in Minnesota.
The party lost the U.S. Senate race, came up short in a special election that could have flipped the state Senate majority, and — pending a pair of court challenges — may or may not have settled for an apparent tie in the state House.
But in the region surrounding Mankato and across the southern part of the state, the Republican Party continued to consolidate its grip.
That included Nicollet Republican Erica Schwartz’s defeat of St. Peter Democratic Rep. Jeff Brand in state House District 18A, which encompasses Nicollet County and a bit of Mankato. With Brand’s loss, Democratic Rep. Luke Frederick of Mankato stands as the sole House DFLer in a broad swath of Minnesota stretching from just west of Rochester to the South Dakota border to Moorhead.
The win by the political newcomer was one of the critical victories that gave Republicans 67 wins in the 134-member House, putting an end to the Democratic majority and the DFL trifecta — control of the House, of the Senate and of the Governor’s Office.
“From what I can see, when I was at the doors talking to people at every town in my district, when I was at small businesses, people were ready for a change, and we saw that here with the election,” Schwartz told The Free Press after the votes had been tallied. “People were ready to see different leadership.”
Schwartz won 51.6% of the vote to unseat Brand. Other than that race and the Mankato-dominated district of 18B, where Frederick won a third term, Republicans walloped Democratic opponents in the remaining area House races. Thomas Sexton, R-Waseca, won 66% of the vote; Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, hit 67.8%; Rep. Brian Pfarr, R-Le Sueur, picked up 68.7%; and Rep. Bjorn Olson, R-Fairmont, topped 69% in District 22A, which includes most of Blue Earth County south of Mankato.
The regional champ, though, was longtime Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Lake Hanska, at 72.7% support.
Area Democrats were left to take consolation from U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s lopsided reelection over Republican Royce White, a victory by the Democrat in a special election in the southwest Twin Cities suburbs that allowed the DFL to cling to a 34-33 majority in the state Senate and — with the race for governor not coming until 2026 — continued control of the executive branch.
Olson said voters wanted balance in state government after watching the Democratic trifecta push through a nearly unprecedented array of policy priorities after prevailing in the 2022 elections. The upcoming session will be very different, even though the DFL still has the Governor’s Office and the Senate.
“… Not a single bill is going to be passed without Republicans and Democrats voting for it. It’s just not going to happen,” said Olson, who will be serving his third term. “Republicans, we’re prepared for good-faith negotiations. We are prepared to find common ground on issues that matter most to Minnesotans.”
In Washington, D.C., by contrast, Republicans will have a taste of what Democrats savored in St. Paul the past two years. President-elect Donald Trump once again came up short in Minnesota, but he won every state from Pennsylvania to the Rocky Mountains other than Minnesota and Illinois — grabbing 312 electoral votes to 226 for Democrat Kamala Harris.
In the process, he led Republicans to a new 53-47 majority in the U.S. Senate. And Democrats managed to pick up a net of just one seat in the U.S. House, allowing the Republicans to continue their narrow 220-215 control of that body.
Minnesota voters didn’t participate in either congressional trend, reelecting Klobuchar by a 16-percentage-point margin and continuing the 4-4 split of the state’s U.S. House seats.
That included New Ulm Republican Rep. Brad Finstad winning a second full term to southern Minnesota’s 1st District with more than 58.4% of the vote over Democratic challenger Rachel Bohman, who won only her home county of Olmsted.
U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach won 70% in the 7th District, which stretches along the western side of Minnesota and includes Sibley County.
Among Mankato-area counties, only Democrats in Le Sueur County could cheer the results of their congressional race. Democratic Rep. Angie Craig won a fourth term in the 2nd District.
But in the southern three tiers of Minnesota counties, Trump was king everywhere but in Rochester’s Olmsted County. It was close in counties with colleges. He edged Harris in Blue Earth County 49.4% to 48.2%, for instance, and in Nicollet County 49.1-48.6%. Harris won the college towns themselves — including Mankato, St. Peter and Northfield — but Trump picked up overwhelming majorities in rural parts of those counties in route to winning nearly 55% of the overall vote across the 1st Congressional District to Harris’s 43%.