by Dennis Dalman
As widely expected, U.S. Presidential candidates Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump overwhelmingly won the Presidential Nomination Primary Election March 5 in Minnesota.
Trump received 232,847 votes (68.94 percent of total votes cast on the Republican ballots). Biden received 171,277 (70.12 percent of votes cast on the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor ballots).
Kyrstal Gabel, at 759 votes, was the top choice for the third party on the ballot, Legal Marijuana Now.
The purpose of a presidential nomination primary is to give voters a chance to select which candidate within their own party they prefer as a presidential candidate. The ballot listed candidates for each of the three parties, and voters had to choose choices within their party of preference. That is, they could not cross-vote among the parties, or their ballots would be invalidated. Write-in candidates, however, were allowed, as was an option to select “Uncommitted.”
The following is a break-down of the votes based on the election data on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website.
Please note that some of the candidates on the ballot had dropped out of the race after the ballots were printed: Two examples: Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie.
DFL Party
Joe Biden 171,277, Dean Phillips 18,959, Marianne Williamson 3,459, Jason Palmer 758, Cenk Yugur 692, Gabriel Cornejo 323, Frankie Lozada 290, Armando “Mando” Perez-Serrato, 372, Uncommitted 45,914, Write-In votes: 2,000. (The higher-than-usual uncommitted votes were likely the result of a movement that started last month in Michigan to protest against Biden’s handling of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.)
Republican Party
Donald Trump 232,847, Nikki Haley 97,182, Ron DeSantis 4,085, Vivek Ramaswamy 1,470, Chris Christie 1,431; Write-In votes 720.
Marijuana Now
Krystal Gabel 759, Dennis Schuller 459, Vermin Supreme 397, Rudy Reyes 365, Edward Forchion 168, Write-In votes 484.
Here are the results in Stearns and Benton counties:
Stearns County
DFL: Joe Biden 2,763 votes (74.90 percent of DFL votes cast), Dean Phillips second with 322 votes.
Republican: Donald Trump 7,245 votes (74.44 percent of Republican voters), Nikki Haley second with 2,287 votes.
Legal Marijuana Now: Krystal Gabel 12; Rudy Reyes 8.
Benton County
Republican. Donald Trump 2,151 votes (80.23 percent), Nikki Haley second with 483 votes.
DFL: Joe Biden 554 votes (73.67 percent of votes cast by Democratic voters), Dean Phillips second with 69 votes, uncommitted 91 votes.
Legal Marijuana Now. Dennis Schuller 10, Vermin Supreme 4.
