A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about “Blue states” which “are bad-policying themselves into electoral oblivion.” Minnesota, with its evenly split legislature, isn’t quite one of those states, but that isn’t to say we aren’t trying.
When we look at “Blue state” policies we see that Minnesota checks a lot of the boxes.
Taxes are high and rising; the average earning Minnesotan handed over a higher share of their wages to the state government than in 43 out of 50 other states in 2025, and ours is one of just 16 states where the share of the average earner’s wages swallowed up by the state government in income tax has increased over the last decade.
Spending is high and rising. In 2025, Minnesota’s state government spent $6,098 per person, an amount higher than in 45 other states, and the real terms, per capita increase of 18.5% between 2019 and 2025 was greater than in 42 other states.
The results of these policies are as they have been elsewhere. As Figure 1 shows, between 2020 and 2025, Census Bureau data show that Minnesota suffered a net loss of residents to other parts of the United States which was worse than in 34 other states.
Figure 1: Rate of net domestic migration per 100,000 of the 2020 population
Such trends, continued, will see us lose a Congressional seat in the reapportionment due after the 2030 census, as Figure 3 shows.
Figure 3
In politics, economic policy is destiny.
