That's a wrap on our 2024 election live blog. Thanks for reading.
We'll have continuing election coverage on startribune.com.
That's a wrap on our 2024 election live blog. Thanks for reading.
We'll have continuing election coverage on startribune.com.
Out of an estimated 3.2 million votes cast — a third of them early or absentee — Vice President Kamala Harris won Minnesota's 10 electoral votes with about 51% of the state's vote, even as she fell to former President Donald Trump in the election.
Long a reliable bastion for Democrats in presidential election years, Harris performed similarly in Minnesota to President Joe Biden in 2020, consolidating strong turnout in the Twin Cities metro area while Trump flipped a handful of previously blue counties around Mankato, Winona and the area south of Duluth.
Click here for a precinct-level look at the presidential results.
Democrat Tammy Baldwin won re-election in the Wisconsin U.S. Senate race, the Associated Press projected Wednesday afternoon.
Baldwin won her Senate campaign despite Donald Trump carrying Wisconsin in the presidential race.
Baldwin won with 49.4% of the vote against Republican Eric Hovde's 48.5%, with 99% of the vote in.
Donald Trump is projected to win Michigan, according to the Associated Press.
Trump leads Harris 49.7% to 48.3% with about 93% of precincts reporting. The AP called the race just before noon.
Trump picks up 15 electoral votes and solidifies his sweep of the so-called Blue Wall states.
Bloomington residents decided to keep using ranked-choice voting to select the mayor and City Council.
The city has used ranked-choice voting to select local leaders in the past two elections, but a question on the ballot this year asked if they want to repeal the system. Preliminary election results showed about 51% of voters chose to keep the system.
“We’re thrilled that our city will continue using ranked-choice voting,” said Laura Calbone, with Vote No On Repeal, a group supported by FairVote Minnesota. Calbone said the system gives voters more choices and can lead to more inclusive government.
Read more on the results here.
Gov. Tim Walz is coming back to Minnesota politically bruised after three months courting voters across the country as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.
Walz will face a fast-approaching budget season, with the makeup of the Minnesota House of Representatives still unknown. Two close House races are headed to a recount.
The governor's budget proposal is due by the end of January.
Another big open question for Walz is whether he will run for a third term in Minnesota, which does not limit the number of terms a governor can serve.
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Natalie Hudson and Justice Karl Procaccini both won election in the only two contested races on the state’s high court.
Throughout the whole statewide judiciary, only nine sitting judges were up for election against challengers, and the results of some of those races were released Wednesday morning. Six of the contests involved district court judges in the Twin Cities, central Minnesota and up north.
Read more on the results here.
Minnesotans overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment question on the November ballot that renewed dedicated lottery funding for the outdoors, a system that has delivered more than $1 billion to environmental projects since it began 36 years ago.
For the measure to pass, more than 50% of voters needed to vote “yes” to the continued flow of Minnesota State Lottery cash into the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund. Preliminary election results released Wednesday morning showed that about 77% of voters approved the renewal.
Since voters first adopted dedicated lottery funding for the outdoors in 1988, the pipeline of money has provided tens of millions of dollars a year for clean water, wildlife habitat, environmental education, trails, land acquisition and other projects beneficial to natural resources.
St. Paul voters decided they want to hold local elections in even years but balked at taxpayer-funded child care subsidies for low-income families.
Both questions were decided by wide margins. According to preliminary election results, about 60% of St. Paul voters said they wanted to choose their mayor and council members in presidential election years, while a similar percentage rejected the child care proposal.
Read the full story here.
Republican Tim Sheehy, a Minnesota native, won the U.S. Senate race in Montana against incumbent Democrat John Tester, the AP projected.
The GOP win gives Republicans a 52-seat majority in the upper chamber of Congress.