The presidential Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, is getting credit for bolstering attendance at both DFL and Republican party caucuses locally and across Minnesota.
Minnesota stood out among the other Super Tuesday precinct caucus states as Minnesota Republicans selected Marco Rubio as their preference for president and DFLers supported Bernie Sanders over Democrat Hillary Clinton for president.
Rubio’s presence in Minnesota gave the Florida senator his only Super Tuesday win, with Trump picking up the most states and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz winning Texas and Oklahoma.
Koochiching County Republican Party Chairman Terry Stone said the local GOP caucuses drew a lot of new people, and strong leadership surfaced to lead the discussions.
Joe Boyle, Koochiching County DFL Party chairman, said he believes turnout was the highest the DFL has ever had at caucuses. About 150 participated in 2008, when Pres. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sought the Democratic endorsement. On Tuesday, Boyle said 236 people attended.
In an analysis “of a political phenomena,” Stone wrote “The Trump Juggernaut in Perspective,” which concludes that Trump may be credited for changing the GOP.
“It would be a shame if the Trump populist juggernaut had to leave the party behind,” he wrote. “This could be the year in which leadership is valued over ideology and it could rejuvenate the GOP.”
His analysis said “The GOP isn’t working on how to exploit the stunning strength of their leading candidate, Donald Trump. In fact, party insiders are feverishly working on how to stop him.”
Boyle said he wasn’t surprised that Minnesota DFLers supported Sanders over Clinton as their presidential choice. Sanders and his campaign spent a lot of time in the state.
“We’re excited, and the fact that we have two good candidates running and the people that came to our precinct caucuses clearly support Bernie or Hillary,” he said. “Overall, we’re grateful we are choosing people of presidential abilities, which we don’t see on the other side (of the political aisle).”
Sanders also won the presidential poll in Koochiching County, Boyle said, with 130 votes for Sanders and 103 for Clinton.
DFL caucus-goers were very positive, Boyle said. “People talked about messages — nobody talked about disliking the pope or criticizing him, or whether (Russian president Vladimir) Putin is a man we could trust,” he said. “We talked about who we thought would be the best president.”
Stone wrote that Minnesotans are figuring out that the problems faced by the taconite and oil industry won’t be solved with party ideology.
“If we have the courage to choose boldly this November, the U.S. could provide reformative tax, environmental and regulatory leadership for the world,” he wrote, adding that the solution requires strong, focused leadership, and the solution cannot wait.
Trump has won 10 states, with the Super Tuesday results. “He has what politicos like to call momentum,” Stone wrote. “He leads in nearly every demographic. He has cross-over appeal to moderate Democrats, Libertarians, labor union members and independents. It’s hard to see what would stop him or even slow him down on his part to nomination and national election.”
That appeal, wrote Stone, expands to people unhappy with the nation’s turn toward “political correctness” and who “are feeling that only high-octane, Trump-style leadership can save the essence of what is America” in the nation’s colleges, the media and the culture. “Party politicians have passively watched as the Democrats and their media co-pilots have dismantled the fabric of our culture at the behest of minority perma-victims.”
Boyle credited the DFLers who attended Tuesday’s caucuses. “People who were there were highly motivated for their candidates,” he said, “but were all very courteous and focused, and making sure we are united in the end so we couldn’t elect a Republican — more so than ever before.”
DFLers, he said, appear to be shocked at discussions by the GOP about hand size and the pope, and fellow Republicans John McCain and the Bushes.
