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Trump Seeks To Be First GOP Presidential Candidate To Win MN Since 1972

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- President Donald Trump will be in the Twin Cities Monday. He will host a roundtable at Nuss Truck and Equipment in Burnsville.

President Trump is traveling to Minnesota to tout what he sees as the success of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, according to a senior administration official.

Trump's 2017 tax cut bill was the largest overhaul of the federal tax code since the 1980s. Eighty percent of Americans are expected to pay less under the plan and are supposed to receive more money in their weekly paychecks.

But many consumers don't see it that way. A new CBS News poll found that three out of four people say the new law pushed their tax bill higher or left it unchanged. Refunds are down $6 billion compared to last year.

Still, the president is expected to use the tax bill as an example of why he should be reelected, and he will be pressing that case here in Minnesota, a state he has said repeatedly he should have won in 2016. Minnesota Republican Party chair Jennifer Carnahan says Trump regrets not visiting the state more in 2016.

"I think his support in Minnesota is just that strong if not stronger than it was in 2016," she said. "Republicans in Minnesota are standing behind him, voters that came out in great numbers that people were not expecting to vote for the president, they are still standing with him. And I think we are going to see very positive momentum as we continue to inch closer to November of 2020."

Trump ended up losing Minnesota by just 50,000 votes in 2016. He campaigned here only once, at an airport rally two days before the election. In campaign stops in Duluth and Rochester last year the president said repeatedly if he had made just one more visit here he would have won the state.

With the election just over 18 months away, the president already seems to be making it clear he thinks he can be the first Republican presidential candidate to win Minnesota since Richard Nixon in 1972.

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