The county is a microcosm of the United States, said Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson: urban and rural diversity, ethnic and economic diversity, and the rare commodity of bipartisanship as a border community between two states with very strong policies and laws. different. Two-thirds of the county’s 66,000 residents live in Moorhead, but live outside the city limits and Clay County is quickly becoming rural. The second largest city outside of Moorhead is Dilworth, with fewer than 5,000 residents. Next is Barnesville, which has a population of 3,000 and is known for its annual Potato Days festival.

Although the allegiances have shifted somewhat from a generation ago — Moorhead’s businessmen were Republicans, the farmers were Democrats — the balance remains.

“If Democrats have enough votes to overcome the Republican base in our county, they generally have enough votes for the rest of the country,” said Markus Krueger, local historian and director of programming at the county Historical and Cultural Society by Clay. “If Republicans have enough votes to defeat Moorhead students, they generally have enough votes to defeat Democratic votes in the rest of the county.”

Without reading too much into a 156-vote Harris victory that doesn’t reflect the national result, Nicholas Howard, an assistant professor of political science at Concordia College, said Clay County’s increasing urbanization could change its status as a swing county.

“We’re seeing fewer and fewer swing counties,” Howard said. “The economic needs of Moorhead and non-Moorhead areas of this county have become more divergent over the past 20 years. This led to some economic and political self-separation. Clay County is no longer the bellwether of Minnesota.

But the nearly even split in those elections this week meant a stark divide in how residents digested what the results meant. And voters are not always clearly classified into a box.