MN-8 has been steadily trending GOP. Obama carried it by an unimpressive 54-46 (just a tad more than his national margin),
Mmm... hmm... that's true enough and part of the decades-long general shift in the geography of Democratic support as the party morphs into something other than the odd coalition it used to be (part pale imitation of a social democratic party (the relevant part in this case), part party-of-the-rural-south). But the change here has been slower than in most other mining areas and the old base vote less prone to fracture and rebel.