Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday. It was close, but at about 1:30 this morning Minnesota time the Associated Press called the presidential race for Donald J. Trump. It was a stunning reversal for Hillary Clinton, whom most polls had shown with a lead throughout the campaign. Trump also ran strong in Minnesota, and gave Republicans a big boost in races for Congress and the Legislature. Let’s check the Digest.
1. Trump complimented Clinton and offered a message of unity in his speech early this morning. “The forgotten men and women of this country will be forgotten no longer,” he said, adding later, “America will no longer settle for anything less than the best.” While it was a close race, he ended up winning in the big battleground states he needed. (New York Times)
2. Much like the Brexit vote back in June, Trump’s victory came in spite of the polls and in spite of the establishment. And like Brexit, it roiled financial markets around the world. (Bloomberg Politics)
3. Trump ran extremely strong in rural Minnesota, and that had a big impact down the ballot. That created some surprises in Congressional races. In a result few observers saw coming, Democratic incumbent Tim Walz won in the 1st District by a razor thin margin over his Republican challenger Jim Hagedorn. In the 8th District Democrat Rick Nolan barely managed to hold off a challenge from Republican Stewart Mills. And a technical glitch delayed results in the 2nd District, where Republican Jason Lewis won the open seat there over Democrat Angie Craig. In the other district that looked competitive as the night began, Republican Erik Paulsen had a relatively easy victory over Democrat Terri Bonoff. (MPR News)
4. The Republican gains went all the way down the ballot. In a first in recent memory, Republicans picked up legislative seats in a presidential year. The state House will remain in GOP hands, and as I write this Democrats appeared to lose their hold on the state Senate. That means DFL Gov. Mark Dayton may be in for a difficult final two years in office. (MPR News)
5. Find all the results here. We’ll keep updating them as the numbers come in. And we’ll have much more coverage in the coming days and weeks. Thanks for sticking with us through the campaign, and I hope you will continue to join us to see what happens next.
