Heading into Super Tuesday, many Minnesota voters unhappy with Biden-Trump rematch

Four years ago, Walter Fromm personally made thousands of calls to help elect Joe Biden. This year, the Minneapolis Democrat said he’s not ready to commit to voting for him again because the president hasn’t called for a cease-fire in Gaza.

David Selbo, a retiree and fiscal conservative from Prior Lake, wants to vote Republican in the presidential race but can’t get behind Donald Trump. He thinks whichever party throws out its presumptive nominee and goes with a younger candidate could win the November election in a landslide.

“There’s no ideal candidate left for me. I want a Republican president, but there’s one I don’t want,” Selbo said. “I don’t want him so much that just about anybody I could work with other than him.”

There hasn’t been a surge in early ballots cast in Minnesota’s March 5 presidential primary election, as many voters bristle at the prospect of a rerun with candidates who are less popular than they were four years ago.

It’s the first time since 1956 that there’s been such a rematch, and neither Trump nor Biden face serious competition on Tuesday’s primary ballot.

Still, there’s fragility in the coalitions on both sides. Trump must contend with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who could pull moderates and independent voters away. For Biden, Minnesota progressives are pushing other Democrats to vote “uncommitted” on Tuesday to send a message to the president about changing his position on Gaza. After a similar campaign in Michigan, more than 100,000 people chose “uncommitted” in the state’s primary election.

“It’s happening in the community too, and a lot of people are saying they aren’t going to vote for Biden because of what’s happening,” said Abdirizak Bihi, a Somali community leader and consultant from Minneapolis. “We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, if the president acts, and how many hearts will change.”

Handling conflicting views within his own party about the war in Gaza is Biden’s most immediate challenge. At a DFL precinct caucus meeting at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis, attendees passed a resolution supporting a cease-fire.

“The loss of life in Gaza is awful; it shouldn’t be a partisan issue with civilians starving to death and being killed,” said Ash Smith, a 21-year-old student at the University of Minnesota, who proposed the resolution and said he would select the “uncommitted” option in the Democratic primary. Smith said he hasn’t decided whether he would vote for Biden in November.

In St. Louis Park on caucus night, Democrats in one precinct unanimously supported a resolution to the DFL Party’s platform to condemn antisemitism in all its forms. Voters there felt Biden’s successful agenda in his first term has been overshadowed by debate over his age.

“You can be smart in your 80s and into your 90s,” said Sharon Anderson, who is in her late 70s and works at a CPA firm. “We definitely have a fear that the young people aren’t understanding that.”

Griffin Szczepek, a 17-year-old St. Louis Park High School student, attended his first caucus at his school Tuesday and will turn 18 just in time to vote in November. He’s happy with what Biden has accomplished as president and plans to vote for him, but he knows many in his generation are feeling despondent about 2024.

“People are mostly downtrodden about it,” he said. “They don’t really care; they don’t like either candidate.”

Republicans Terry and Margaret Flower would prefer that Haley be the party’s nominee. The couple from Nininger Township, just west of Hastings, attended Haley’s campaign event in Bloomington on Monday and said they think she’d be a capable and less divisive president.

Terry Flower, 82, said he worries about Biden’s cognition and disagrees with the president’s handling of security at the southern border. A veteran, Flower said he’s also disliked some of Trump’s statements about the military, such as when the former president criticized John McCain for being a prisoner of war. But the couple said they will ultimately vote for Trump over Biden if that’s the choice.

“If you ask any person who will honestly look at their pocketbook, they were better off under Trump than they are today under Biden,” Terry Flower said.

Many voters’ lack of enthusiasm doesn’t match what state party leaders say will likely be a competitive rematch between Biden and Trump this fall. Trump came within 1.5 percentage points of winning Minnesota in 2016 and has since shown interest in devoting time and money to turning the state red.

“Minnesota will be a critical battleground, much like it was in ‘16 and in ‘20,” state DFL chairman Ken Martin said.

For his part, state GOP chairman David Hann said he’s seeing Republican voters who are energized and ready for a change in the White House.

“If the presumptive nominees are who everybody thinks the presumptive nominees will be, if that’s the case, this will be a very close race in Minnesota,” Hann said.

Not everyone is waffling on who they will support. The last four years under Biden have only solidified Steve and Sara Anderson’s support for Trump.

“We need to make some improvement in this country. [Trump] can do it,” said Steve Anderson, who lives in Prior Lake with his wife. “He is still an outsider.”

The same goes for David Johnson, a 54-year-old mechanical engineer from Hastings who said he’s pulling for Trump “all the way.” He sees Trump as someone who “does what he says he’s going to do.” Under Biden, Johnson said he’s felt hopeless.

“It’s the worst economy I’ve seen in a long time. I just took a big step up at work and inflation outpaced that,” he said.

Abdi Jama, a truck driver who lives in Minneapolis, has been angered by Biden’s response to the conflict in Gaza and Israel.

But he said he would still vote for Biden or whoever the Democratic nominee is in November.

Staff writers Reid Forgrave and Louis Krauss contributed to this story.