MN-GOV - The return of Tim Pawlenty?

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

The real question is, if Pawlenty wins, how much of the Trumpist mantra he adopts as he campaigns. Ed Gillespie already showed that he was willing to put his eggs in the white-grievance basket in an attempt to run up margins in rural areas of the state. Who knows if Pawlenty would want to do the same, or stick to his 2002/2012 image, and how either would affect his chances.

Also, as an side, can we talk about how hilariously bad his signature is?

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

I would really like to see MN Dems make a rebound in rural areas. It's pretty sad to see highly Scandanavian, rural areas of the state that have voted D for decades (e.g., The Lake Traverse bend counties, northern Red River Valley) lean hard right the last couple of cycles, especially considering there is zero DFL representation at the state level outside of precincts dominated by college towns. I seem to remember though that MN was one of the states where Trump had the highest voter support among 35 and younger voters. I really hope 2016 was just Hillary-specific (you can see she lost like 1000 votes from Obama's 2012 share in some counties that only have like 15K people) and that in 2018 the national environment, the state election frenzy, and Klobuchar's campaign can really energize the DFL in areas that aren't just The Cities metro area.