The attendance at the Republican caucuses in Edina and Bloomington was about double the turnout for the caucuses in 2018 and 2020. From anecdotal reports on social media, this experience was repeated in precinct meetings in Minneapolis and across the state. Reports have also been received of individuals who remarked that they had voted for Democratic candidates in prior years, but they could no longer see themselves reflected in the Democratic Party.
Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman David Hann congratulated volunteers, candidates and staff on a successful round of precinct caucuses on February 1.
“We appreciate the hard work of everyone involved in reorganizing our party from the grassroots up for this year’s elections and beyond. We saw a strong showing of enthusiasm from Republicans all across the state. Our party is excited and unified for the opportunity to make our case to the voters and elect Republicans this fall.”
Talk was upbeat and enthusiastic. Many new participants, particularly young people, were elected into precinct leadership positions. We experienced a great turn-out of enthusiastic party activists and new people resolved to get involved to make changes in the leadership of our state government. To those of you involved in planning and conducting these caucuses, your efforts are truly appreciated.
The results of the Republican Governor Straw Poll indicated the relative strength of the candidates (that had declared before February 1) among Republican caucus attendees. The data below provides the relative voting percentages across the state vs within SD49:
| Candidate | State-wide | SD49 |
| Jensen | 38% | 30% |
| Gazelka | 14% | 11% |
| Shah | 12% | 13% |
| Qualls | 11% | 30% |
| Murphy | 11% | 4% |
| Benson | 7% | 3% |
| Undecided | 7% | 9% |
Republicans in Minnesota have reason to be excited. KSTP News released the results of a survey this week that shows, in the words of Carleton College political analyst Steven Schier, Governor Walz “is not close to 50% against any of the Republican candidates and so if the Republican Party can raise enough money and run a good campaign they have a serious chance of being highly competitive against the governor.”
KSTP reported that, in their KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz led the six Republican candidates he was matched up against, but the race is dramatically tighter than it was in December. Given the number of undecided voters recorded in this poll, Republicans should not hesitate to talk with their neighbors about the direction of the state.
For more background information about the Republican caucus process in Minnesota, check out earlier articles posted at on the SD49GOP website.