Socially liberal rural areas

[Ban my account ffs!]

Let's speak in relative terms.

Northern Minnesota is pretty socially liberal when compared to other rural areas of the country. 

Last November, my local state house race was between a socially libertarian, fiscally liberal DFLer and a local pastor Republican that made gay marriage and abortion his two big campaign issues.  The DFLer got 65% of the vote. 

A lot of that is simply because people here don't want to mix religion with politics and place a lot more importance on bread and butter issues.  The area is overwhelmingly ELCA Lutheran, which is quite liberal, and that makes a huge difference.

Also, northern Minnesota really does not like Pawlenty.  My county went for Hatch 50-42 and Pawlenty won by 0.9% statewide, but is governing as if he won in a landslide.