Good morning and happy Friday as we wrap up election week on Veterans Day. The transition has begun. President-elect Trump met President Obama for the first time Thursday and they said nice things about each other afterwards. Later in the day thousands of people in Minneapolis shut down I-94 to protest Trump’s election. Here’s the Digest.
1. Minnesota led the nation in voter turnout for this week’s election, even though the percentage of eligible voters casting ballots was actually down compared to the past two presidential elections. All told Minnesota’s turnout hit 74 percent compared to about 55 percent nationwide. (Star Tribune)
2. Republicans in the Minnesota Senate chose Paul Gazelka of Nisswa to be their new leader. They will be in the majority next year for only the second time in the past four decades, but ironically the leader who helped them win the majority, David Hann of Eden Prairie, was the only incumbent Republican senator to lose on Tuesday. Senate Democrats chose Sen. Tom Bakk of Cook to continue as their leader as they head into the minority. Republicans will likely have a 34-33 majority, pending the results of two recounts which will begin at the end of the month. (MPR News)
3. As Democrats try to regroup after a disastrous election, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison has Bernie Sanders’ backing to be the next chair of the Democratic National Committee. Ellison was an early supporter of Sanders when he ran for president. Sanders says the DNC needs to spend less time raising money from well-heeled donors and more time working on behalf of grass-roots Americans. Ellison is a Muslim and some see that as sending a symbolic message during the Trump administration. Howard Dean is also interested in the job. (Washington Post)
4. The new president has a Republican-controlled House and Senate to work with, and they all say they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But dismantling Obamacare is not likely to be a quick and easy process, and it’s unlikely they’ll want to scrap everything in the law. As Democrats have seen, there’s a political risk if health insurance is too expensive and hard to find, and now Republicans will have to deliver on alternatives. (AP)
5. Why did the pollsters miss so badly in calling the presidential election? They’re not quite sure yet. It could be they made a mistake on modeling who was likely to vote, or Donald Trump could have had a late surge in support. The biggest problems were in the polls of battleground states. It was just the latest big miss for the polling industry. (Politico)
