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Those mostly red, blue-blotched maps of Minnesota you saw on this newspaper's pages and website last week did more than report election results. They also depicted a sharply divided people.
What did the 2022 election tell us about ourselves, Minnesotans? That map shows it: The trials of the past four years have made this state's red places redder and blue ones bluer. Our partisanship has deepened, remarkably and maybe even dangerously so.
What that tells me is that even though DFLers will hold all the reins in the State Capitol next year for only the second time since 1990, governing this state will be anything but easy. Gov. Tim Walz and the House and Senate's spare DFL majorities are bound to encounter strong resistance from Republicans who maintain — with justification — that they are simply representing their districts.
By the vote-tote numbers, Walz's win last week might be deemed a lot like his first gubernatorial victory four years ago. He garnered about 80,000 fewer votes, out of 2.5 million votes cast, than he did in 2018 — a relatively small change.
The map and the numbers that accompany it reveal more. They show that instead of carrying 21 of Minnesota's 87 counties, as he did in 2018, Walz won only 13.
Two of those were whopping wins. Walz scored 72% of the vote in Ramsey County and 70% in the big prize, Hennepin. Both were gains over his 2018 performance. His share of the vote compared with 2018 also grew in Dakota, Washington, Olmsted and Cook counties.