Minnesota gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2014

Minnesota's 2014 elections U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Governor • Lt. Gov • Attorney General • Secretary of State • Other executive offices • State House • School boards • Judicial • Candidate ballot access

Minnesota Gubernatorial Election

Primary Date: August 12, 2014

General Election Date: November 4, 2014

November 4 Election Winners: Mark Dayton Tina Smith

Incumbent prior to election: Mark Dayton Yvonne Prettner Solon

Mark Dayton Yvonne Prettner Solon

Minnesota State Executive Elections Top Ballot Governor • Lieutenant Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General Down Ballot Auditor

Battleground Races Minnesota House of Representatives

Lost trifecta for Democrats

State executive offices in Minnesota

The Minnesota gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Mark Dayton (D) was running for re-election, while current Lieutenant Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon did not file for re-election.^[1] Dayton and running mate Tina Smith defeated four tickets including the Republican ticket of Jeff Johnson and Bill Kuisle. The gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial candidates for each party were voted on as a single ticket rather than separate candidates in the general election. Dayton and Smith won election to concurrent four-year terms.

Recent gubernatorial elections in Minnesota featured narrow margins of victory, including a 0.4 percent margin for Dayton and Solon in 2010. Polling trends detailed in our polls section showed Dayton and Smith with a double-digit lead over Johnson and Kuisle as of mid-October.

The gubernatorial race was not the only race on the November ballot that could shift the balance of power in Minnesota. The Minnesota House of Representatives was identified by Ballotpedia as one of the top 20 legislative chambers to watch in 2014. Both legislative chambers and the governor's office were held by a single party, making Minnesota a state government trifecta. The Minnesota House of Representatives flipped from Democratic to Republican control, thus eliminating the state's trifecta status. Learn more about the state's most competitive legislative races on the battleground chambers page.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Minnesota utilizes an open primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.^[2][3][4]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

Candidates

General election

Mark Dayton/Tina Smith - Incumbent
Jeff Johnson/Bill Kuisle
Chris Holbrook/Chris Dock
Grassroots Party candidates Chris Wright/David Daniels
Hannah Nicollet/Tim Gieseke

Defeated in the primary

Bill Dahn/James Vigliotti
Leslie Davis/Gregory K. Soderberg
Merrill Anderson/Mark Anderson
Scott Honour/Karin Housley
Marty Seifert/Pam Myhra
Kurt Zellers/Dean Simpson

Results

General election

Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Mark Dayton/Tina Smith Incumbent	50.1%	989,113
	Republican	Jeff Johnson/Bill Kuisle	44.5%	879,257
	Independence	Hannah Nicollet/Tim Gieseke	2.9%	56,900
	Grassroots Party	Chris Wright/David Daniels	1.6%	31,259
	Libertarian	Chris Holbrook/Chris Dock	0.9%	18,082
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.1%	1,134
Total Votes				1,975,745
Election results via Minnesota Secretary of State

Primary election

Democratic primary

Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, Democratic Primary, 2014
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Mark Dayton/Tina Smith	93%	177,849
Leslie Davis/Gregory K. Soderberg	4.5%	8,530
Bill Dahn/James Vigliotti	2.6%	4,880
Total Votes		191,259
Election results via Minnesota Secretary of State.

Republican primary

Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, Republican Primary, 2014
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Jeff Johnson/Bill Kuisle	30.3%	55,836
Kurt Zellers/Dean Simpson	23.9%	44,046
Marty Seifert/Pam Myhra	21.1%	38,851
Scott Honour/Karin Housley	20.8%	38,377
Merrill Anderson/Mark Anderson	3.8%	7,000
Total Votes		184,110
Election results via Minnesota Secretary of State.

Polls

General election

Hypothetical match-ups

Note: An asterisk (*) denotes incumbent status.

Campaign media

Mark Dayton

Jeff Johnson

Hannah Nicollet

Ad spending

The Wesleyan Media Project published a report on September 30, 2014, highlighting spending on gubernatorial races from September 12-25. This report found that Democratic and Republican groups spent a total of $46.84 million on TV ads in 15 states with gubernatorial elections. The following chart details the group's findings, including spending amounts and number of ads:^[6]

Note: A bolded number indicates the highest total for this category. A number in italics is the lowest total for this category.

Past elections

2010

On November 2, 2010, Mark Dayton/Yvonne Prettner Solon won election to the office of Governor/Lt. Governor of Minnesota. They defeated Tom Emmer/Annette Meeks (R), Tom Horner/James A. Mulder (I), Chris Wright/Edwin H. Engelmann (Grassroots), Farheen Hakeem/Dan Dittmann (Green), Ken Pentel/Erin Wallace (Ecology Democracy) and Linda S. Eno/Howard B. Hanson (Resource) in the general election.

Governor/Lt. Governor of Minnesota, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Mark Dayton/Yvonne Prettner Solon	43.6%	919,232
	Republican	Tom Emmer/Annette Meeks	43.2%	910,462
	Independence	Tom Horner/James A. Mulder	11.9%	251,487
	Grassroots Party	Chris Wright/Edwin H. Engelmann	0.4%	7,516
	Green	Farheen Hakeem/Dan Dittmann	0.3%	6,188
	Ecology Democracy Party	Ken Pentel/Erin Wallace	0.3%	6,180
	The Resource Party	Linda S. Eno/Howard B. Hanson	0.2%	4,092
	Write-In	Various	0.1%	1,864
Total Votes				2,107,021
Election results via Minnesota Secretary of State.

2006

Governor of Minnesota, 2006
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Tim Pawlenty and Carol Molnau Incumbent	46.7%	1,028,568
	Democratic	Mike Hatch and Judi Dutcher	45.8%	1,007,460
	Independence Party	Peter Hutchinson and Maureen Reed	6.4%	141,735
	Green Party	Ken Pentel and Danene Provencher	0.5%	10,800
	Quit Raising Taxes	Walt E. Brown and Wesley C. Nelson	0.4%	9,649
	American Party	Leslie Davis and Gregory K. Soderberg	0.2%	3,776
Total Votes				2,201,988

2002

Governor of Minnesota, 2002
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Tim Pawlenty and Carol Molnau	44.4%	999,473
	Democratic	Roger Moe and Julie Sabo	36.5%	821,268
	Independence	Tim Penny and Martha Robertson	16.2%	364,534
	Green	Ken Pentel and Rhoda Gilman	2.2%	50,589
	Independent	Booker T. Hodges IV and Kamal Buchanan	0.4%	9,689
	Socialist Workers	Kari Sachs and Samuel Farley	0.1%	3,026
	Constitution	Lawrence Aeshliman and Tamara Ann Houle	0.1%	2,537
	Write-in	Write-in candidates	0.1%	1,340
Total Votes				2,252,456

Voter turnout

Political scientist Michael McDonald's United States Elections Project studied voter turnout in the 2014 election by looking at the percentage of eligible voters who headed to the polls. McDonald used voting-eligible population (VEP), or the number of eligible voters independent of their current registration status, to calculate turnout rates in each state on November 4. He also incorporated ballots cast for the highest office in each state into his calculation. He estimated that 81,687,059 ballots were cast in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, representing 35.9 percent of the VEP.^[7] By comparison, 61.6 percent of VEP voted in the 2008 presidential election and 58.2 percent of VEP voted in the 2012 presidential election.^[8]

Quick facts

• According to PBS Newshour, voter turnout in the 2014 midterms was the lowest since the 1942 midterms, which took place during the nation's involvement in World War II.^[9]

• Forty-three states and the District of Columbia failed to surpass 50 percent turnout in McDonald's analysis.

• The three states with the lowest turnout according to McDonald's analysis were Texas (28.3 percent), Tennessee (28.6 percent), and Indiana (28.8 percent).

• Maine (58.5 percent), Wisconsin (56.5 percent), and Colorado (54.5 percent) were the three states with the highest turnout.

• There were only 12 states that increased voter turnout in 2014 compared to the 2010 midterm elections.^[10]

Note: Information from the United States Elections Project was last updated on December 16, 2014.

Campaign finance

Comprehensive donor information for this election has been collected by Follow the Money. Based on available campaign finance records, the candidates raised a total of $6,473,517 during the election. This information was last updated on May 22, 2015.^[11]

Campaign Contribution Totals
Candidate	Office	Result	Contributions
Mark Dayton/Tina Smith	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$2,940,013
Jeff Johnson/Bill Kuisle	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$1,596,588
Scott Honour/Karin Housley	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$1,022,046
Kurt Zellers/Dean Simpson	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$599,879
Marty Seifert/Pam Myhra	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$278,881
Chris Holbrook/Chris Dock	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$19,763
Merrill Anderson/Mark Anderson	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$10,000
Hannah Nicollet/Tim Gieseke	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$4,194
Chris Wright/David Daniels	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$1,853
Leslie Davis/Gregory K. Soderberg	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$300
Bill Dahn/James Vigliotti	Minnesota Governor/Lt. Governor		$0
Grand Total Raised			$6,473,517

Key deadlines

Ballotpedia reports

To learn more about developments in these races, check out the following news articles from Ballotpedia:

• Minnesota state executive elections review: Comfortable wins, close calls share the stage in Minnesota primaries
• Minnesota state executive elections preview: Heated races for governor, auditor highlight primary day in Minnesota

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Minnesota + Governor + election"

See also

• Governor of Minnesota
• Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota
• Minnesota state executive official elections, 2014
• State executive official elections, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Governor of Minnesota
• Minnesota Lieutenant Governor

Footnotes

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