BLUE EARTH COUNTY, Minn. — While Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz won the statewide presidential election in Minnesota, President-elect Donald Trump and running mate J.D. Vance surpassed them in the county where Walz first entered politics.
Walz represented Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Blue Earth County, from 2006 to 2019. He and his family lived in Mankato, the county seat.
According to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State, Trump had 49.9% of the vote in Blue Earth – 18,002 voters – while the Democratic ticket earned 48.18% or 17,558 voters.
Statewide, Harris defeated Trump 50.88% to 46.66%. No Republican has won Minnesota since Richard Nixon in 1972.
In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Trump in Blue Earth by about 1,600 votes, but Trump won the county by about 1,200 votes in 2016.
Before Walz’s election, the 1st District had been represented by Republicans for most of its history. It’s been that way since he left the office returned to Republican control.
Walz taught at Mankato West High School for twelve years and served as assistant football coach and helped form the school’s first gay-straight alliance group in the 1990s. He is originally from Nebraska.
Walz and his family moved to St. Paul in Ramsey County after his gubernatorial victory in 2020. Harris and Walz overwhelmingly won that metropolitan county.
The Governor of Minnesota returned to the state Wednesday to serve the remainder of his second term. In a statement, he said he is “grateful to the millions of Americans who joined our campaign and stood up for our greatest ideals: decency, compassion and love for our neighbor.” He has not yet said whether he will seek a third term as governor.
