DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar won 12 counties that voted for Trump. Here's how she did it.

MINNEAPOLIS — For Democrats, the post-mortem continues as to why Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz performed more poorly with almost every demographic than President Biden did in 2020.

In Minnesota, Sen. Amy Klobuchar did much better than Harris with some of those same groups. 

Harris won Minnesota 51% to almost 47% while Klobuchar faired much better statewide, beating her opponent 56% to 40%. 

Klobuchar carried 12 conservative counties that Donald Trump won. They are Anoka, Beltrami, Blue Earth, Carlton, Carver, Mahnomen, Mower, Nicollet, Norman, Rice and Scott Counties. 

"I think a lot of this is going to all 87 counties every year, year after year. It makes a difference to me. I think it matters," Klobuchar said. "In the end, you are not going to get every vote there. I know that. But they still come up to me and sometimes they say, 'I didn't vote for you but I agree with what you did on veterans benefits.'"

In this election, Klobuchar faired much better than all other Senate Democrats — she won by a significantly larger margin.

Republicans in the election flipped the Senate and will control it in the new session. Klobuchar says she does not expect to be sidelined by Republican control and that right now, as the current chair of the Senate Rules Committee, she has some big jobs ahead. One is overseeing the certification of the counting of the electoral votes that will happen once again on Jan. 6. 

Klobuchar will be one of the chairs of the Congressional Inauguration Committee that will oversee President-elect Donald Trump's swearing-in on Jan. 20.

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