Minnesota Voting Trends Could Offer Early Clue To 2016 Results

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It will be hours before we know any sort of results from around Minnesota, but we can look at the trends from the last presidential election in 2012.

In 2012, President Barack Obama captured the 10 electoral votes from this state, beating Mitt Romney 1,547,688 votes to 1,321,575.

A closer look at the numbers county-by-county and at some of the voting trends, here in the metro and in the northern and southern part of the states, might clue you in to what we can expect from the results later today.

Anoka, Carver and Stearns counties all voted Republican in 2012. Mitt Romney had the biggest edge over Barack Obama in Carver County, where he had 20 percent more of the vote.

Conversely, Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota and Washington counties all voted for Obama. The vote from Ramsey County showed a 35-percent gap between Obama and Romney.

Elsewhere in the state, Olmsted County, which includes Rochester, went Democratic in 2012. St. Louis County, which includes Duluth, also went for Democrats.

So did Itasca County voters, which includes Grand Rapids, which is interesting because some political analysts are predicting that the 8th Congressional District will sway toward Trump this year.

In neighboring states, Wisconsin and Iowa went blue in 2012, both voting to re-elect Obama. North and South Dakota went with Romney. Wisconsin last voted Republican in 1984. Iowa voted Republican in 2004 by a very narrow margin.