Jill Biden, Donald Trump Jr. bring presidential campaigns to Minnesota

Former Second Lady Jill Biden and Donald Trump Jr. both campaigned for their presidential candidate relatives in Minnesota on Wednesday, underscoring the state's rise as a pivotal Midwestern battleground in the race for the presidency.

Jill Biden stopped at Jeffers Pond Elementary School in Prior Lake as part of a back-to-school tour through swing states on behalf of Joe Biden's campaign for president. Trump Jr. gave an afternoon speech at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center after a stop earlier in Winona.

Jill Biden said the former vice president, who was campaigning in Michigan on Wednesday, is likely to make a campaign stop in Minnesota before Election Day.

"It's looking good but we're not taking any vote for granted," Jill Biden said. "We're all going to be here fighting for every single vote."

Trump Jr. dangled the prospect that his father would turn Minnesota red in a presidential race for the first time since 1972.

"They say we can't win Minnesota. I disagree. How about you?" he said to cheers from a crowd of about 200 people sitting in socially distanced chairs.

A Morning Consult poll released Wednesday showed Joe Biden with a 5-point edge over President Donald Trump in Minnesota, but Biden's lead has narrowed from previous polls. Another poll released Wednesday, by SurveyUSA for KSTP-TV, found Biden with a 9-point lead.

Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in the state in August. The Democratic vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, appeared briefly last month on a Minnesota-focused virtual roundtable.

Masked and sitting 6 feet apart inside the Prior Lake gymnasium, Jill Biden and roughly a dozen educators and DFL-elected officials discussed the challenges of starting the school year during a global pandemic.

Jeffers Pond teacher LeAnn Weikle said distance learning made eight- to 10-hour days stretch to 12 or 16 hours long, and she still felt behind helping students connect.

She said every student needs an iPad to learn in a distance or hybrid setting.

"Help us have the resources that we need," she said. "There are a lot of ways our government can help us."

A community college professor, Jill Biden said she and her husband will be partners to schools at the federal level, giving them the funding they need to safely reopen their classrooms. But she stressed that school officials need to "follow the science."

"If the doctors are telling us we need to shut down, we need to shut down," she said. "There's nothing more precious than America's children, and we should keep them all safe."

In Duluth, Trump Jr. began his speech with an unspoken nod to the Iron Range, referencing areas that were historically liberal strongholds "back when the Democratic Party used to actually represent blue-collar Americans." He asked if there were any steelworkers in the room.

"The unions of steelworkers are going to support Joe Biden and spend their union dues supporting the campaign of a man who has probably single-handedly done more damage to manufacturing jobs than any other human being in American history," Trump Jr. said.

For most of his 35-minute talk, Trump Jr. played to his father's Republican base, drawing laughs from the audience as he made fun of Democratic officials and policies.

He questioned Biden's fitness to serve in office, condemned ongoing COVID-19 shutdowns and criticized 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Of his father, Trump Jr. said: "You may not always like the way he says things. But, man, he tells you the truth." He went on to rail against media coverage of the Trump administration.

At times, Trump Jr. made efforts to liken himself to those in the crowd, noting his love for fishing and hunting and saying he had more experience with blue-collar jobs than Biden.

"I understand that it's not easy to be a conservative," Trump Jr. said. He called Minnesota a "blue state that we're going to flip for the first time in a long time."

He urged Trump supporters to be vocal about their positions.

"Make sure your friends are involved, get them registered, get them voting," he said. "Make sure they're aware that they're not alone."

Katie Galioto • 612-673-4478

Briana Bierschbach • 651-925-5042