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As President Joe Biden exits the White House, how will Minnesotans view Biden’s legacy over the last four years? 

Political analysts Todd Rapp, president and CEO of Rapp Strategies, and Chas Anderson, CEO of Park Street Public, talk to MPR News host Tom Crann about Biden’s legacy through a Minnesota lens.  

Click play on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.

 Well, probably inflation is the is the most relevant in Minnesota. We've had a very strong economy. And really, for the first time in a long time that I can remember, a lot of people had the impression the economy was weaker than maybe the typical statistics coming out of Washington were demonstrating. If you look at three major issues, maybe that defined the election, immigration, inflation, and I'd say also international strength, inflation was probably the one that more people were talking about at their dinner table on a consistent basis in Minnesota.

 I completely agree. And you know, in fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Minnesota was hit eighth hardest amongst states for inflation. When you're looking at buying groceries every month, you know, whatever things that you buy normally at Target or Walmart, and then you discover, ‘Wow, this is a lot more than it was back in January 2021.’ That is a driving factor that people, when they go vote, they think about those things. 

Looking back on it, back in 2008-2009, we had a major stimulus bill early in 2009 a lot of economists and policy makers felt like that stimulus wasn't big enough, and it really delayed the recovery from that recession. And so if you look at the Biden administration, you know, we had between Trump and Obama, three stimulus bills, basically, and trillions. And maybe, we over learn the lesson from the 2009 economic slowdown. And maybe it was too much money, and we kind of know that, because inflation did drive up quite quickly in 2021. And so maybe, perhaps we over learn the lesson from 2008-2009.

Biden’s effects on transportation and infrastructure 

 I think infrastructure generally, and the investments that have been made state to state have been a very big deal. I think it's been a big deal for labor. I think it's been a big deal for communities that have been waiting for a long time for those investments. Fortunately, it hasn't been that quite of a big deal for people driving the roads. We seem to understand that the trade-off of better employment for these investments has been good, and I think as people look back on the Biden administration, I think these investments are going to be one of the things that they're looking at that they say, that they're proud of and they're glad that the federal government took care of.

: We saw that with The Stillwater Bridge, Blatnik Bridge in Duluth, very popular, people want to have good transportation and transit systems. The problem is those projects take a long time to play out for people to see the benefits, because of the construction time. And so I think people like them, but the driving force was like, ‘What is my budget? What is my household budget? Why can't I afford it four years later?’ 

Biden legacy on mining and the environment  

:  I think that's one of the driving issues in northeastern Minnesota [[The reason]] why you see kind of the party change happening in that area is that while I know that a lot of folks up there value the environment, they also value mining jobs and the economic benefit that brings. And so that kind of chasm between, you know, those two issues, I think, has kind of created a party flip up in the Iron Range. 

 I agree. I think Democrats are going to have to start to figure out this issue. And up there, it's as much, ‘Why are we being lectured to from people down in the Twin Cities about the jobs and lifestyle that we want to have?’ I'd also add, though, that increasingly, the discussion on mining is a national security discussion, particularly as we've seen what's happened in Ukraine and the loss of some minerals because of that war going on. If we're going to move towards a green energy economy even more quickly, we're going to have to start to answer, what type of mining do we need to invest in this country.”

Minnesota Republicans’ low approval of Biden

 I think when you look back at the election, because of his numbers being so low, his approval rating, his reelection numbers, Republicans actually wanted to run against President Biden, for that reason. And so when they had that early debate, and he was being pushed out, to drop out, if you remember, right prior to that, the Trump campaign announced they were going to have a full operation in Minnesota, because their polling numbers said that he could come close to winning 400 electoral votes. And so once that change happened, and Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz came in on the ticket, you know, they retracted from Minnesota, they went back to their battleground states. So, you know, in the end, I think it could have been much worse for Democrats had President Biden stayed on that ticket. 

 I think we wish we had known sooner what struggles that President Biden was having, and we'd have been able to make back in the spring the decisions about who our candidates should be, as opposed to have to wait till 100 days out. And I think there is some regret, even if it's not being said right now, that people ignored Rep. Dean Phillips as much as they did, and they tried to demonize him. Instead of, quite frankly, have the President go out and debate Phillips, and if the president won that debate, it would have instilled a lot of confidence and changed the campaign. 

How Biden’s legacy will look over time  

 Well, it’s difficult to talk about legacy right now is because the parties are off in their polarized areas, and a lot of the voting right now is being done on what you think negatively about the president or the president's opponent and not what you're thinking about positively about the agenda that they're setting. And so as a result of that, this whole the idea of talking about legacies may be changing — changing significantly. It's so different than Reagan, or different than Obama, [on] how we're looking at these candidates today? 

 I think that over time, you know, these numbers will improve. I mean, look at President George W Bush. He now enjoys pretty high approval ratings when he didn't when he left office in 2009. So I think things really just have to play out, and time has to go by to see what is really going to be his legacy in Minnesota in the end and nationally.” 

Tom Crann

Host

Jeff Jones

Author

Matthew Alvarez

Two political analysts talk with MPR News host Tom Crann about President Joe Biden’s legacy and the impact his record will have on Minnesotans. 

How will Minnesotans remember Biden's presidency?  

How will Minnesotans remember Biden's presidency?

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