Is Olmstead county starting to come our way?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is encouraging news and a counter to any claims Minnesota will turn into the Utah of the Midwest.

Olmsted county contains Rochester, the fourth largest city in Minnesota (Duluth is slightly larger) and a traditional GOP stronghold. It is also the population center of my congressional district, and since it's about twice the size of my fairly Democratic city(the second largest city in the district), we've never been able to overcome its margins.

But I was browsing some old results. The only time Olmsted voted Democratic was 1964, and even then it only gave the scumbag 56%, considering he got almost 64% in Minnesota overall that's not too impressive. It voted over 60% for Ford, and over 58% for Bush I. Even in 1992 it gave Bush 55% of the two party vote, so if Perot took votes mainly from Republicans like they claim, that means Bush would've normally done even better.

But in 2000 it only gave Bush 51% of the vote, and he didn't even crack 50% in Rochester city, usually unheard of for a Republican. Very few counties gave Bush I in 1992 higher relative numbers than Bush in 2000, except ones becoming more Democratic. Can we soon win Olmstead?

[minionofmidas]

It does look like it, yes.

[migrendel]

Isn't that where the Mayo Clinic is?

[muon2]

I spent this past weekend in that CD, and I would agree that  the national message does not resonate well there. MN is an unusual place and ticket splitting is a common occurrence. I still saw a lot of local GOP support, but it will probably remain split through the current cycle.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Isn't that where the Mayo Clinic is?

yes. the main reason Rochester was traditionally heavily Republican was that it's economy is based more around technological and medical industries rather than unionized labor and agrigicultural.