Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range is named for the economic activity that built the area and defines its landscape—mining for taconite, a key ingredient in steel. Growing up there in the 1980s, a few things were constant. There were going to be weeks in the winter when the temperature never got above zero. There would be strikes at the mines, and many of my friends’ fathers would be temporarily out of work. Driving a Japanese car—when imported Japanese steel was the bogeyman—was an invitation to abuse. And the area, hardcore union territory, would always vote Democratic.
But in 2016, the Iron Range voted for Donald Trump by a narrow margin, making him the first Republican to carry the area since the 1930s. By 2024, it wasn’t even a question. “Iron Range emphatically realigns its politics,” read a headline in the local press.