Klobuchar sets another milestone

REGIONAL— Twenty years ago this week, the voters of Minnesota elected Amy Klobuchar as the state’s first female U.S. Senator. This week, on Tuesday, voters made her the state’s first female governor as she defeated Republican Lisa Demuth to become one of the most successful politicians in Minnesota history.
Klobuchar, a political moderate, successfully navigated statewide concerns about the handling of well-publicized, if overstated, cases of welfare fraud in Minnesota, which Republicans seized upon in hopes of weakening the DFL’s 20-year-long grip on statewide offices. But the issue couldn’t overcome the anti-Republican tide that swept the nation as voters backed DFL candidates across the board in statewide offices and put them back in full control of the state Legislature.
Klobuchar, who cited her bona fides as a former county prosecutor to head off concerns over fraud, topped her GOP opponent, soon-to-be-former state House Speaker Lisa Demuth by a 55-42 percent margin. She proved that the Klobuchar brand remains strong in northeastern Minnesota, where she won by a 61-37 percent margin in St. Louis County and by a 55-43 percent margin in Lake County. Klobuchar, who has frequently played up her family connections to Ely, outpaced Demuth at the end of the road, 55-42 percent.
Klobuchar, the daughter of well-known Star Tribune sportswriter and columnist Jim Klobuchar, launched her political career with a successful run for Hennepin County Attorney, a position she held for eight years. She ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006 to fill the vacancy left by retiring senator Mark Dayton and won the seat by a better than 20-point margin over her GOP opponent Mark Kennedy. She ran for re-election in 2012 and 2018, winning by landslide margins. In 2024, she defeated Republican Royce White by 16 points, a relatively small margin by Klobuchar standards.
Klobuchar’s only unsuccessful political campaign came in 2020, when she made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for President.
With her election as governor, Klobuchar’s husband John Bessler, will become the state’s first gentleman, a title not previously held in the state. Klobuchar will serve with her lieutenant-governor running mate, Ben Schierer, an author and former mayor of Fergus Falls.
DFLers sweep statewide offices
While Klobuchar broke new ground as the state’s first female top executive, she will have plenty of friendly company in St. Paul as her DFLers prevailed in all of the state’s constitutional offices. Attorney General Keith Ellison was easily returned to office as he bested his GOP opponent Jim Schultz by a 54-46 percent margin. Secretary of State Steve Simon was easily re-elected over Republican Tad Jude, winning by a 55-42 percent margin.
DFLer Zack Filipovich will be Minnesota’s next state auditor, as he bested Republican Scott Jensen, 53-44 percent.