On election eve, many efforts to fire up Minnesota voters

Updated: 4:55 p.m. | Posted: 3 p.m.

Candidates, volunteers, party officials and officeholders used the last day before the election to try to fire up their supporters and make sure they vote.

The efforts included get-out-the-vote rallies in cities around the state by a traveling group of Democrats and a final visit from one of the candidates on the national ballot.

In Duluth on Monday morning, the Republican candidate for vice president, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence told a crowd of about 300 people in an airport hangar that Donald Trump is the candidate of change.

"The American people long for something new and different," he said. "The other party has literally nominated someone who personifies the failed status quo in Washington, D.C."

Trump was in Minneapolis for a rally on Sunday, although his prospects for winning the state and its 10 electoral votes appear slim. The last time a Republican presidential candidate won in Minnesota was Richard Nixon in 1972.

The Trump and Pence visits may be aimed at western Wisconsin, another state that has favored Democrats for president in recent elections, but where Trump is hoping to cut into Hillary Clinton's lead in public opinion polls.

In Rochester on Monday, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and 1st District Congressman Tim Walz spoke to a packed DFL headquarters.

Walz said volunteers need to focus on getting people to the polls.

"All of the stuff that was out there that was out of our control — from FBI to media, whatever it was — we can't control that," he said. "We can control our vote. Let's not rest, let's get out. These are close elections that are won in the next 35 hours, so let's go get 'em."

Meanwhile, there were more long lines at early voting sites.

At the start of the day, the Minnesota Secretary of State's office reported, 568,000 people had already voted.

That's about 20 percent of the total number of voters in the last presidential election.

Some of the most hotly contested races in Minnesota are for Congress. Three of the state's eight districts could be early indicators of whether Democrats make a serious run at taking control of the U.S. House, where Republicans currently have a 246-186 majority.

The contests in Minnesota's 2nd, 3rd and 8th congressional districts have drawn lots of outside money and TV ads.

In the 8th, which stretches north and east from the Twin Cities to the Canadian border, DFL Rep. Rick Nolan faces Republican Stewart Mills in a rematch of their 2014 race.

Nolan spent the final morning of the campaign greeting mine workers in Virginia, Minnesota. Mills was at the Mike Pence rally in Duluth then headed to the Iron Range to talk to voters.

Outside money has poured into the race, making it one of the most expensive in the country. Special-interest groups spent more than $15 million dollars on the race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

As of mid-October the Mills campaign had spent a little more than $3 million compared to Nolan's nearly $2 million.

"Don't for one minute believe all of that hog wash and all of those lies and distortions on radio and television," Nolan said in an interview in Grand Rapids Sunday about what he is telling voters. "Get out there and vote for the DFLers because they are the ones that are responsible for the progress that we have made in this country."

As for Mills, he is hoping support for Donald Trump in the district will help him. Although the region has typically been a DFL stronghold, concern over a decline in the steel industry and dissatisfaction with trade deals have Mills believing voters are looking for a change.

"It's extremely palpable. They're angry. They're frustrated," he said in a recent interview. "In the words of one veteran that I was talking to, he says that we need to shake Washington D.C. up like a jar of nickels."

In the open 2nd Congressional District, DFLer Angie Craig and Republican Jason Lewis each fit in several stops Monday around the district, which includes southern metro suburbs east to Red Wing.

Craig, a former medical device executive, moved from a bookstore meet-and-greet in Northfield to a factory shift change in Cottage Grove before rallies in Red Wing and St. Paul. The visits come on the heels of a weekend campaign blitz where she said her campaign and other DFL Party volunteers hit 27,000 doors across the district.

"We're only preparing for one outcome, and that's to win," Craig said while waving as plant workers in Cottage Grove drove by.

Lewis, a former radio show talk show host, squeezed in time to record a closing radio ad between shaking hands with suburban commuters in Eagan and Lakeville. He also visited a technical college campus in the search for votes.

No matter the outcome, Lewis said he'll have no regrets about the campaign he ran and proud that "I stuck to my guns."

More than $11 million in campaign spending, both by the candidates and outside groups, favored Craig. Lewis said he isn't dwelling on whether spending on his side to save the Republican-held seat came too late.

"Look, tomorrow night we'll either be doing a victory celebration or a post-mortem. It's probably more appropriate to analyze things then," Lewis said. "Obviously we're going to get outspent and obviously more money is better than less money."