(Editor’s note: Because of an early news deadline of 5 a.m. Nov. 9, a story of vote totals could not be written for the Nov. 11 issue. The following story is based on vote totals as of Nov. 14.)
by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Following the national outcome, voters in the cities of Sauk Rapids and Rice in the Nov. 8 general election favored Donald Trump as president over Hillary Clinton by overwhelming margins – in Sauk Rapids by a vote total of 3,938 to 2,133 and in Rice by a vote total of 656 to 191.
Sauk Rapids voters gave the mayor position to current council member Kurt Huntstiger over contender Guy Konietzko on a vote total of 3,511 to 2,249. Elected to the Sauk Rapids City Council were Steve Heinen, 3,087 votes; and Nicholas Sauer, 2,833 votes. Both Sauer and Heinen are council incumbents. Unsuccessful contenders for council seats were Merle Gales, 1,785; and Layne Schmitz, 1,487.
Rice voters re-elected Mayor Dale Rogholt by 560 votes with challenger Wayne Moen receiving 265. The two Rice City Council incumbents, running unopposed, were also re-elected with Christopher Scheel receiving 611 votes and Bryan Anderson receiving 513 votes.
Rice voters’ decisions also coincided with winners in other categories: newcomer Republican Andrew Mathews over Democrat Chilah Brown for State Senate District 15; and incumbent Republican Jim Newberger over Democrat Karla Scapanski for State Representative District 15B.
Incumbents – all but one of them – also fared well in the race for Sauk Rapids-Rice School Board, with the help of Rice voters. The four elected to the board are newcomer Ryan Butkowski, 6,348 votes in the cities of Rice and Sauk Rapids combined; Mark Hauck, 5,845 votes; Jan Solarz, 5,674 votes; and Tracy Morse, 5,611 votes. All three are incumbents. Another incumbent, Tracey Fiereck was not among the winning candidates; she received 5,247 votes.
In U.S. Congressional District 6, incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Emmer was easily re-elected, defeating DFL challenger David Snyder on a vote of 235,531 to 123,122. Voters in Sauk Rapids and Rice also preferred those candidates.
Sauk Rapids and Rice voters’ top choice for the State Senate District 13 race was also the overall winner, incumbent Republican Sen. Michelle Fischbach, who garnered 29,235 votes to DFL contender Michael Willemsen of Sauk Rapids with 13,338 votes.
Also re-elected for the fourth consecutive time is Sartell resident, State Rep. Tim O’Driscoll for House District 13B. He defeated DFL challenger Matthew Crouse by a vote of 14,882 to 6,465.
Regional results
Although Clinton won Minnesota – but just barely by about 2 percentage points – Trump won handily by a two-to-one margin in Minnesota’s U.S. Congressional Sixth District.
Trump and other Republican candidates fared very well in all three area counties – Benton, Stearns and Sherburne. In all three counties, Trump won handily by a two-to-one margin or better. In the most heavily populated city, St. Cloud, 15 of the city’s 22 precincts showed wins for Trump – seven for Clinton, five of those pro-Clinton precincts in Ward 1, which is in the college area.
National results
Nationally, Trump won more than enough electoral votes to win: 306 at last count (he needed 270 to win). Clinton won 232 electoral votes. Although at last count, Clinton won the national popular vote by a one- to two-point margin over Trump, she did not win the election because she failed to get enough electoral votes state to state (270).
Trump and Clinton each received about 60 million votes at last count, with a slight edge for Clinton. Absentee and mail-in votes are still being counted, mainly in the states of California, New York and Washington. However, those votes will not change the results of the election because Clinton already won in those states, along with those states’ electoral votes.
