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GOP Failure: Maybe It's the Party's Total Deficit of Popular Ideas... or Maybe It's Also This Other Stuff...
Nobody doubted, for even a splinter of a second, that the DFL would run roughshod over its Republican foes in Tuesday's midterm elections in Minnesota, extending the party's statewide winning streak to 20 years. How and why did the MN GOP eat shit in such spectacular fashion? The postmortems are beginning to appear, and we've collated the top-cited culprits.
Geography...
For the Strib (gift link), data reporter Yuqing Liu twice goes out of her way to twice commend the "strong" field of Republican candidates, but uses—you guessed it—data to illustrate how that subjective assessment wasn't nearly enough for victory. The gist: More voters (and more engaged voters) live in big, metropolitan counties, creating regional divides that are hamstringing Republicans more and more with each passing decade. "[It] creates an uphill climb for the right that would take something more seismic to shift," Liu concludes. Axios Twin Cities reporter Kyle Stokes has more on the GOP's losing bet on the metro suburbs.
Unpopular president...
Stribbers Walker Orenstein and Ryan Faircloth found no shortage (gift link) of Republicans willing to point fingers at the policies of President Donald Trump, whose nosediving popularity, losing wars, expensive gas, costly tariffs, and deadly domestic ethnic cleansing campaigns are proving unpalatable to voters. “To me it’s very clear this is a rejection of one man and his behaviors and policies,” outgoing state Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) says. (Never forget: Abeler's the guy who accidentally legalized weed here.) Failed state auditor candidate Scott Jensen says Tuesday's curb stomping represents a “scathing judgment” of the president. Steven Schier, poli sci professor emeritus at Carleton College, writes for MinnPost that "despite competitive GOP resources, the election centered on Trump, not fraud—and that led to big DFL victories."
Tripling down on biggotry...
Minnesota Reformer Editor-in-Chief J. Patrick Coolican authored a banger column that strikes rare chords of optimism. Using election data, interviews with immigrants, and his own fiery prose, Coolican argues that Trump's strategy of brazen, ugly racism toward Minnesota's Somali community backfired at the ballot box. We'll give him the final word...
Trump’s hateful rhetoric, which his followers parroted, didn’t help Minnesota Republicans break their two-decade losing streak in statewide races. And every Minnesota House district voted more blue than in 2024. I’m sure it was mostly driven by the cost of food and fuel, and the naked corruption of the Trump administration and their cronies, but forgive my idealism if I also believe that Minnesotans also sought to send a message against his bigotry.
Should We Get to Design Our Own "I Voted" Sticker?
Perhaps, on Election Day, you gazed upon this colorful map of each state's "I Voted" sticker and thought to yourself: Minnesota deserves to vote on its own sticker. Some of the cuter designs are those that were submitted by students or other contest winners. Well at least 800 people agree with you—as MPR News' Ava Grace reports, a petition to let Minnesotans do just that has amassed that many signatures, and the number is climbing.
On the one hand, we find our simple red-and-white sticker kind of chic and classic (you can just see Jackie O. sticking one to a camel coat) as well as universally appealing (goes great on a denim jacket, which is important). On the other, we'll never get our own psychedelic spider crab sticker without opening it up to submissions...
Anyway, read Grace's story to learn a little bit about local voting sticker history and see some very cute and cool submissions from 2026 contest winners in Iowa and Michigan.
Twin Cities Maker Is on the Move
When Racket checked in with Twin Cities Maker in 2025, the Minneapolis nonprofit makers space had high hopes of relocating from its Seward building at 3119 E. 26th St. to a 117-years-old grain mill in Longfellow. That deal eventually fell through. But the dream isn’t dead! Trevor Born at Longfellow Whatever reports that the org has signed a purchase agreement for the 7-Sigma building at 26th Avenue & 29th Street. "[The building] is often cited as the testing area where the first Army Jeeps were prototyped," Born notes.
Now in its 16th year, TC Maker started as a web forum before morphing into a volunteer-run space where members pay a monthly fee for access to all kinds of equipment and resources, including 3D printers, welding facilities, woodworking tools, fiber arts looms, and laser cutters. The model is working.
“Membership increased by more than 40 percent in the past year, to about 750 people,” Born writes. “After operating without a staff member until 2024, they’re now up to four full-timers.”
Now comes the toughest challenge: fundraising. TC Maker leaders estimate they'll need around $4 million to secure the move; in addition to loans the group has set up a donation page in hopes of raising around $1.25 million.
Check Out Retired Strib Columnist Jon Tevlin's New Substack
Jon Tevlin's retirement has been anything but boring, for better or worse.
The longtime reporter-turned-columnist left the Strib in 2018, and after five years of caring for his beloved wife, Ellen, he turned to ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to help cope with her death. Then, a surprise: The "despondent widower" met and married a Kenyan woman, Irene, who's 11 years his junior. They settled in, of all places, the far-northern Minnesota city of Thief River Falls.
Sound like the stuff of compelling memoir? One day it might just be, Tevlin teases. But in the meantime you can read about his remembrances of Ellen, travels to Irene's familial African village, and townie encounters inside TRF dive bars via his newish Substack, Swallow the Sun: Loss, Grief, Rebirth with a new Kenyan Wife.
"I think it's some of the best writing of my career," Tevlin tells us. We couldn't agree more—hit subscribe to read for free.
