Space to think

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Hibbing Community College on Oct. 23, 2014. (PHOTO: Aaron J. Brown).

This was the first time since I started the blog that I neither maintained a live blog on election night, nor wrote a breathless analysis article the day after. To those who were looking for one, sorry.

I’ve got thoughts, and you’ll get them, but not yet.

Holding out might have been the best choice. In an election where most Democratic votes came in by mail through all manner of state election systems, we had one sort of feeling on election night and an entirely different vibe a few days later.

For instance, Joe Biden is poised to win more than 300 electoral votes and secure a popular majority of more than five million popular votes. Though we could have imagined him doing better, it’s not nearly as dire as the way it looked on Election Night. The Democrats’ main failure was in the Senate races, though they technically have some small (if unlikely) hope of capturing the upper chamber in a pair of Georgia run-offs on Jan. 5.

Locally, as I’ve been predicting, President Trump and Republicans did well on the Iron Range. But their win here wasn’t dramatically better than 2016, nor anywhere near enough to disrupt Biden’s convincing 7-point victory in Minnesota. St. Louis County actually got better for Democrats in the end, though Itasca County drifted further to the right.

I’ll have a new column about the hot-button House 6A race between Rep. Julie Sandstede (DFL-Hibbing) and Hibbing Republican Rob Farnsworth for Sunday. I’ve already had to revise it a couple times based on changing vote totals, but sufficed to say the race will be resolved in a recount.

The world spins on, but the little bubble around the Iron Range is certainly a lot more Republican than it used to be.

I’m also working on a piece for the Minnesota Reformer than I think you’ll enjoy. But it’s been a rough week from a mental health standpoint. I’m going to enjoy some time in the woods and a good sauna this weekend. I’ll come back refreshed next week. See you then.