In Minnesota Republicans experienced electoral disaster that verges on disgrace if it doesn’t get there. We lost both Senate races by wide margins. We lost the governor’s race by a wide margin. Indeed, we lost every constitutional office. We even elected former hate cult member and longtime supporter of cop killers Keith Ellison over Republican Doug Wardlow in the contest for attorney general. Ellison was assisted by the fact that his disgraceful views were held in confidence by the reporters at the Star Tribune. Ellison’s 4-point margin over Wardlow, however, made for the narrowest statewide win last night.

I should add that Green Party and Legal Marijuana Now/Grassroots Cannabis candidates siphoned votes from Democrats in several of these races. The performance of Republicans statewide last night was pathetic. They were outspent and outgunned. If Republican insiders seriously thought that Karin Housley posed a substantial threat to the vacuous Tina Smith, they might be ripe for the plucking by the Legal Marijuana Now crowd. Soul-searching is always in order, but in this case it is mandatory.

Republicans held the state senate by virtue of their success in a special election for one open senate district, but they lost their majority in the state house.

Democrats Angie Craig and Dean Phillips (my cousin) knocked off incumbent Republicans Jason Lewis and Erik Paulsen in Minnesota’s Second and Third Congressional Districts, respectively, but their victories may have been offset by the possible victory of Jim Hagedorn (he leads by 1500 votes with 15 precincts yet to be counted) and the certain victory of Pete Stauber in the First and Eighth Districts, respectively.

Oh, and Ilhan Omar “made history” by her election to succeed Ellison representing Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District (Minneapolis and inner-ring suburbs). I previewed the race in this Weekly Standard article published just after the special DFL Fifth District endorsing convention this past June. According to the Star Tribune, Omar “made history” by becoming the first Somali-American elected to Congress. I say she made history by becoming the first person elected to Congress after marrying her brother.