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Sen. Bernie Sanders has long argued that his campaign “can bring millions of people into the political process who normally do not vote.” On Tuesday, Minnesota turnout jumped by 27 percent from the state’s last DFL primary election — and Sanders lost anyway.

Voter turnout was up the most in the the Twin Cities metro, where Sanders was hoping to rack up votes with a concentration of the most liberal voters. It wasn’t enough.

Hennepin County saw 72,000 more Democratic voters than the state’s 2018 primary, but former Vice President Joe Biden edged out a 34.5 percent to 33.2 percent victory there. Ramsey County turnout jumped by 24,000, and Sanders won it only narrowly.

Minnesota’s last competitive Democratic primary, the 2018 gubernatorial race that saw then-Rep. Tim Walz beat the more progressive state lawmaker Erin Murphy, saw a total of 583,735 votes, compared to 744,470 on Tuesday.

The 2020 results in some way mirrored 2018, with Walz fighting Murphy to a draw in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties and racking up votes elsewhere in the state.

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Election 2020

David H. Montgomery

Author

A quick look at who voted where for the top two finishers Tuesday and how turnout in the presidential primary compares to the DFL primary for governor in 2018.

Frederic J. Brown | AFP via Getty Images

David Montgomery | MPR News

David H. Montgomery | MPR News

A chart showing total votes by party in Tuesday's primary

Joe Biden's Minnesota presidential primary win in three charts

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