Minnesota has been seen as a 2020 battleground state in the presidential election. Some experts say that suburban women voters will play a critical role in the outcome.
WCCO's Susie Jones spoke with University of Minnesota Political Science Professor Kathryn Pearson about the election.
In every presidential election since 1980, women have been more likely than men to vote for the Democratic candidate. But that doesn't mean that all suburban women necessarily vote for the Democratic candidate.
"We know that a majority of suburban women in fact in 2016 voted for Donald Trump," said Kathryn Pearson a political science professor at the University of Minnesota. "But the polls so far have indicated that this year more suburban women say they plan to vote to Joe Biden."
Suburban women voters have been increasingly diverse in the past several years, "Suburban women voters include white women, women of color, married women, single women," Pearson said. " I think a lot of these analysts that suggest they are a monolithic group are missing some important nuances."
Education has also become an important factor in how suburban women vote.
"We are seeing an increasing gap between voters with a college degree and voters without a college degree," she said. "The gap emerged in 2016, when a majority of white voters without college degrees supported Donald Trump, and voters with college degrees supported Hillary Clinton."
Pearson said Minnesota hasn't backed a Republican for president since 1972, the longest running blue streak of any state in the country. Some analysts say the state is up for grabs this year.
Jaime Becker Finn lives in Roseville, and is also a member of the Minnesota House. "I was first elected in 2016," she said. " I was one of the few Democrats that came in that year."
In the last four years she says she has seen the mood shift.
"The folks in my community are fired up."
She says there are a lot of yard signs and more people are volunteering to help.
