Although in many places, the presidential election was the focus of the day, it seems that that particular election was hardly at the forefront of the minds of many Minnesotans. In fact, the news of Barack Obama’s reelection did not even crack the 10 “Most Viewed” stories on the Pioneer Press website, and only appeared five stories down on Star Tribune’s “Most read” list, below “Downtown Mpls. restaurants under scrutiny over disabled accommodations.” Arguably, it is understandable that the presidential election was not the main focus in Minnesota, as it is not a swing state, having granted its electoral votes to the Democratic candidate in every election since Richard Nixon’s 1972 win. It is also important to note that in Minnesota, there were two amendments of great magnitude on the ballot – a voter ID amendment and a marriage amendment.  Judging by the list of most read stories on the two major newspapers’ sites and the buzz I viewed on various social media outlets, the defeat of these two amendments was bigger news for many people in Minnesota than the reelection of Obama. The reelection of Michele Bachmann, an extremely controversial conservative U.S. Representative who has gained nationwide notoriety, by a mere 4,207 votes, was closely watched across the state – and likely the nation. Kare 11, the local NBC affiliate in the Twin Cities, was live tweeting the vote count, as it was extremely tight throughout the evening. This station, along with other broadcasts and newspapers, tended to tweet results so as to keep the voters informed, but also encouraged the viewing and reading of traditional news sources, as evident in Kare 11’s last tweet of the night: “Bachmann defeats Graves in tight 6th District race. Tune in to KARE 11 Sunrise starting at 4:30am for the latest.

Since I could not follow the election coverage on a local station as I would have if I had been at home, I settled for following Kare 11’s twitter feed and the CNN website, as I watched the CNN broadcast. It was convenient that the CNN site offered state-by-state coverage, but it was also interesting to see how they prioritized the results. Obviously, since CNN is a nationwide network, the Minnesota presidential results were featured at the top. They would also display “Key Races,” essentially meaning close races or those that might hold wide interest, such as the Bachmann v. Graves race. They also prioritized amendment initiatives, as the results of the marriage amendment were being prominently displayed, but it was very challenging to find out any information regarding the voter ID amendment. Truly, across various media sources, the marriage amendment appears to have taken precedence over all other contests, including the presidential race. In the days and weeks leading up to the election, there was a proliferation of “VOTE NO” statuses, profile pictures, cover photos, and stories being posted on Facebook, with little noticeable buzz regarding Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.  As one Pioneer Press article is entitled “Minnesota Republicans lose big, face tough two years ahead,” it seems the focus in Minnesota was less on Obama’s win, and more on the uncertain future of the Republican party as a whole as it faced major setbacks in Minnesota and elsewhere in the 2012 election.