I don't know much about Minnesota, but it seems like the Twin Cities trended left (moreso than any other metro area in the Upper Midwest) and the rural areas were a bit of a wash.
Did Minnesota have a high third-party vote in 2016?
The combined D+R vote was about 90% in MN in 2016, compared to about 93.5% in WI. MN has always had a lively third party tradition.
And I'm not sure I'd count the outstate vote in MN as "a wash". We saw a trend towards the Dems in larger towns, no matter what baseline they started with - Bemidji, Mankato, and Rochester - whereas more rural areas continued to trend Republican. (and, quick fun fact because it puzzled me: the biggest R trender, Stevens County, is the home of the University of Minnesota system's liberal arts college, so its R trend is likely because students stayed home this year rather than going to college).
Not related to political leanings, but something weird about the Rust Belt is that, as part I suppose of the legacy has the heart of American industry, there are allot of really good STEM schools in the Midwest, U of I, Purdue, Michigan, Wash U, Iowa State, Missouri S&T, etc. are basically assembly lines for bright young engineers
Nothing weird about this at all; other than WashU and Michigan, you've named four Land Grant universities (although S&T is sort of weird, in that it was chartered as a Land Grant but is no longer one). Rust Belt states, of course, were an early hub of, and originators of (Michigan State + Penn State especially, although Iowa State was the first school created uniquely to fulfill the purpose of a Land Grant), agricultural and mechanical schools, so they poured time, talent, and treasure into making excellent public universities that largely specialize in STEM.
