Six months ago, very few people imagined that this year’s senate and governor races in Minnesota would be anything but Democratic Party blowouts, but as we approach October, and the beating heart of the midterms, the Gopher state appears suddenly and stunningly in play.Recent polling, as shoddy as this cycle’s surveys have been, show GOP senate candidate Michelle Tafoya within 2 or 3 points of her opponent, sitting Lt.Gov.
Peggy Flannagan, and while the chaos surrounding the death of Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE is in the rearview mirror, the massive Somali fraud scandal decidedly is not.On Sunday, I headed over to Cowboys Saloon in Lexington, Minn., just north of the Twin Cities, to attend a Vikings game watch party for local Republican volunteers, where I found Lisa Demuth, Speaker of the Minnesota House and candidate for governor, rallying the troops ahead of some door knocking and leafleting.LEE CARTER: THE SUMMER POLLS MISSED THE POINT: VOTERS ARE MOVING — AND THE MIDTERMS BEGINDemuth is running against sitting senator Amy Klobuchar for governor as the Minnesota Democrats play a high stakes game of political musical chairs, in which poor Gov.Tim Walz has already lost his seat.Republican Speaker of the House, Lisa Demuth, speaks during a press conference in the governor's reception room at the Minnesota Capitol in St.
Paul, Minn., Thursday May 15, 2025.(Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)"We have heard from Minnesotans across the state," Demuth told Fox News Digital, "when we’ve been traveling, that they are ready for a change, it's nice to see the polling start to reflect that, but we were hearing voters ready for a change, ending fraud, making the state affordable, just all the desperate change we have needed."Over the next several weeks, the key question will be whether Minnesota Republicans, and fed-up independents, really believe they can win this time, after decades of Democrat dominanceMinnesota’s GOP House Majority Lea...