WASHINGTON – There’s an old maxim in politics that many Americans don’t know who represents them in Congress. According to the latest MinnPost/Embold Research poll, that seems true of many Minnesotans.
The poll shows that Minnesota’s senators have good name recognition. And among the eight members representing Minnesota in the U.S. House, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-5th District, was the most recognizable, with only 7% of the respondents saying they had “never heard” of the congresswoman.
Rep. Brad Finstad, R-1st District, who represents southern Minnesota and is the newest member of the state’s congressional delegation, was the least-known lawmaker. Fifty-one percent of the poll’s respondents said they “never heard” of Finstad, who was first elected to the U.S. House in a special election in August of last year to serve out the remainder of the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn’s term.
Twenty-three percent of the voters surveyed said they never heard of Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, and even more, 31%, said they never heard of Rep. Dean Phillips, D-3rd District, who is challenging President Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee for president.
Meanwhile, 25% of respondents said they never heard of Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, who, as majority whip, is a member of the GOP House leadership. Thirty-one percent said they never heard of Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-7th District, and 41% said they never heard of Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th District.
And when asked about Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, 37% of respondents said they never heard of the longest-serving member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation.
Minnesota’s Democratic senators were more recognizable. Only 5% of those surveyed said they never heard of Sen. Amy Klobuchar and 20% said they never heard of Sen. Tina Smith. The senators are also more popular than Minnesota’s U.S. House members, the MinnPost/Embold Research poll showed.
Forty-two percent said they viewed Klobuchar favorably, while 39% said they viewed her unfavorably. By calculating the difference between the favorable and unfavorable percentages, pollsters come up with a net positive or negative score for politicians.
So, the MinnPost/Embold Research poll gave Klobuchar a “net favorable” rating of +3. Smith’s favorable and unfavorable ratings were evenly split.
Meanwhile, Omar, who is a lightning rod for conservative furor at progressive politics, had the worst favorability rating in the delegation: -31. And McCollum had the least unfavorable rating: a net -2.
While few Minnesota lawmakers had favorable ratings that outweighed their unfavorable ratings, they seem to be more popular than Congress as a whole.
A September Pew Research Center Survey found that about 7 in 10 Americans (72%) say they have an unfavorable view of Congress, with 26% saying they have a favorable view.
“While public views of Congress have been more negative than positive for over a decade, the share of Americans giving Congress an unfavorable rating is now among the highest in nearly four decades of polling,” Pew Research Center said.
The MinnPost/Embold Research poll surveyed 1,519 likely Minnesota voters from Nov. 14-17. Its margin of error was +/- 2.6 percentage points.
Dairy fight
The United States lost a trade fight with Canada this week that has made Minnesota dairy farmers – and the lawmakers who represent them in Congress – hopping mad.
For decades, Canada has controlled its dairy, eggs and poultry markets, restricting how much farmers can produce and limiting imports through tariffs.
The United States argued before a dispute settlement panel of the United Sates-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that Canada violates its obligations to free trade under the trade pact through a tariff-rate quota system.
But the USMCA dispute resolution panel disagreed with that argument this week, giving Canada a win.
That was not well received by many lawmakers who represent dairy farmers.
“U.S. dairy producers deserve the level playing field they were promised in this agreement,” said Rep. Brad Finstad, R-1st District, in a statement. “It is disappointing that our dairy farmers are now at a disadvantage because our largest trading partner has fallen short of the market access agreed to in the USMCA.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-7th District, said: “Trade opportunities need to be increased, rather than stifled as they are in this decision, which favored Canada's historically restrictive structure.”
U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack vowed to continue to press Canada to open its market to more American dairy products.
Your questions and comments
A reader commented this week on a story about how Rep. Dean Phillips’ decision not to run for reelection, leaving an open seat in the 3rd Congressional District, may make the race to succeed Phillips more competitive.
“I don't live in Phillips' district (I live in Ilhan Omar's 5th, which has its own issues), but I think you (and others) have nailed it by suggesting that the 3rd District in Minnesota may be back in play. It was solidly Republican when I first arrived in Minnesota earlier in the century, and only recently have the 'burbs expanded enough to make a significant impact on electoral outcomes. … It wouldn't be smart for either GOP or DFL to make too many assumptions about a race in the 3rd District going their way...”
Meanwhile, a couple of readers took issue this week about the headline of a story about a new MinnPost/Embold Research poll that showed Minnesota respondents favored President Biden over former President Trump 45% to 42%. The headline said the race was “virtually neck-and-neck.” The poll’s margin of error was plus-or-minus 2.6% points, and the results were within that margin.
So, it’s impossible to say with any certainty that either Biden or Trump have an advantage in the state right now. But it’s still very early in the presidential race, with many voters not having made up their minds yet. And the poll said Minnesota supporters of Donald Trump would be less likely to back the former president if he is convicted of any of the many charges he’s facing.
What was clear about the poll is that it shows Biden does not have the type of lead in the state that his campaign is hoping for – at least not right now.
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.
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