state by state speak your mind about...minnesota

[dflprincess]

56. Mondale never ran against Pawlenty

He did step in to run in Paul Wellstone's place and lost to Coleman in a very close race.

The last time Minnesota landed in the Republican column during a presidential race was 1972.

Pawlenty never got more than 45% of the vote statewide. This is because Minnesota does have a long tradition of 3rd parties. The DFL was not always the DFL. Once upon a time there was a Democratic party and a Farmer Labor party (and a Republican party, but we don't talk about that). The Democrats & the Farmer Laborites merged in 1944 and, to this day, there are those of us who think that was the biggest mistake the Farmer Labor party ever made.

It was the progressive bent of the state that allowed Nader to get 5.2% of the vote here - that and Minnesota was considered one of the states where it was "safe" to vote for Nader as a protest.