Having grown up there, I can shed some light. The Dem party in MN is called the Dem Farmer-Labor party. Large emphasis on Farmer. There are many Scandinavians in MN and they tend to be positively disposed towards socialism (not sure why, but look at Europe - the Scandinavian countries have been socialist for a long time). This is a bit different in the ring of suburbs around the twin cities, but the city cores and outstate are nearly all blue, while the ring of suburbs is solid red. That's how the likes of Michelle Bachman can win in the suburbs, and Al Franken can win the state (although he stole it the first time).