A redder Range could determine the makeup of Minnesota's Legislature

Last week, one of the largest solar manufacturing plants in the country celebrated a major expansion — not in California, or Texas but on Minnesota’s Iron Range.

DFL U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith were there to celebrate. So was local DFL state Rep. Dave Lislegard, who reminded the crowd that the solar plant is built on the old tailings of an iron ore mine and very near to what could be a new wave of mining in the region.

"You're standing here on the Iron Range, where we have one of the world's largest deposits of copper-nickel mining,” he said. “When we talk about solar, and we talk about wind and we talk about electric cars, we have the ability to do the right thing, the right way, right here! Made right. Made Minnesota. Made in America."

Lislegard is the kind of Democrat who not too long ago would likely have coasted to reelection on the Iron Range. He's a former iron mine worker and past mayor of the town of Aurora.

He argues he's pro-mining, pro-labor, pro-jobs: bread and butter priorities that resonate in this working class region.

Yet as he seeks to retain the District 6B seat, he finds himself in a tight contest with Republican Matt Norri, a political neophyte who boasts important name recognition. For years his family owned a beer distribution business on the Range.

"The party that I'm running with, the platform is very, very positive for mining here in Minnesota,” said Norri, adding that mining is his top issue, and what he hears about most frequently from voters.

“My opponent's party, the majority of their caucus does not want mining here,” Norri said. “I mean, you can be as pro-mining is you want, but when you don't have the backing to get it done, it's just not gonna happen."

Changing politics

Republicans sense opportunity on the Iron Range, a longtime Democratic stronghold that has shifted rapidly to the right in recent elections. The GOP argues the DFL is more aligned with liberals from the Twin Cities and out of touch with Range priorities.

Last month key Republican officials from around the state came to the Range to support Norri. U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber drove to Virginia, Minn., to rally volunteers in a Hobby Lobby parking lot before they knocked on doors for the first-time candidate.

"I'm the first Republican reelected in 76 years up here on the Range, and that's just a start,” Stauber proclaimed. “You folks here are going to add to that with getting Matt here elected."

With razor-thin margins in both the state House and Senate, the Iron Range could hold the key to which party controls the state Legislature. Two state Senate seats and several House seats in northeastern Minnesota are in play.

"The Range just itself can put us in the majority,” said House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, who also drove to Virginia to support Norri. “We think we've got a better than 50-50 shot at winning every legislative seat on the Range."

Working for working families

Democrats on the Iron Range argue they are the candidates with the long track record of backing working families and organized labor.

"The DFL, our party, does represent working families,” said State Rep. Jen Schultz, Stauber's challenger in the 8th district, to a roomful of volunteers at the party office in Hibbing before they left for an evening of door knocking.

"And we need to make sure that message is getting across the table, when you're at the door, to communicate all the great things that our party is doing for working families."

That's what State Rep. Julie Sanstede emphasized when she walked door to door, chatting up residents of a Hibbing neighborhood recently.

"I really just fight hard to make sure that our voice here on the Iron Range is heard down in St. Paul and that our issues that are so important to us are as important down there as they are to us up here,” she told one homeowner.

Sandstede, a music teacher, is vying for a fourth term in St. Paul. In 2018 she won District 6A by nearly 20 percentage points. Two years later, she won by less than 1 percent against the same Republican challenger.

In her pitch to voters, Sandstede talks up her accomplishments in St. Paul and how she works across the aisle to get things done for her district, including bringing home funding for investments in broadband, water and sewer infrastructure, and public safety buildings.

While she hears a lot positive feedback, she said she's also hearing a lot of frustration with what's seen as DFL "extremism," including Gov. Tim Walz’s handling of COVID-19.

"If I had a nickel for every time somebody said, Julie, 'Not you, not frustrated with you, just in general, you know, we want to see things done differently.' So I say to them, ‘That's why you need to elect a moderate Democrat then,’ [so] that I can push back within my own caucus. To just make sure it doesn't go too far one way or the other.’"

This year Sandstede is running against another incumbent, Spencer Igo from near Grand Rapids. Redistricting paired them against each other. Knocking doors in a different Hibbing neighborhood, Igo said his message resonates with Iron Rangers.

"I'm pro-labor, against right to work,” he said. He also described himself as for “energy, which is mining, which is logging, manufacturing,” he continued. “I like to say giving people a hand up to live their life rather than a handout. That's the way we've always been up here."

Two open seats

Regardless of who prevails, the Iron Range is guaranteed to have two new state senators next legislative session. There are races for two open seats to replace iconic legislators: Sen. Tom Bakk, who’s retiring; and Sen. Dave Tomassoni, who died earlier this year after a more than year-long battle with ALS.

Both encapsulate the shifting political winds on the Iron Range. They were both longtime Democrats who became independents during their final terms.

Bakk has endorsed a Republican to replace him in the Senate, but he’s backing two Democratic incumbents for the House seats in his district, including Dave Lislegard. ”There's nobody more pro-mining in the entire Legislature than Dave Lislegard,” he said.

But in general, Bakk said the national messaging of Democrats around issues like climate change and abortion doesn’t resonate with voters on the Iron Range.

“Jobs are always going to be the issue here, because we live in a very cyclical economy. And you just don't hear a lot of narrative about jobs coming from the Democratic Party any longer. They've moved on to other things, but I just don't think people here have moved on because of the nature of the economy up here.”

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