On Tuesday, Feb. 5, hundreds of people living in Winona, including many Winona State University students, flocked to Winona Senior High, Winona Middle School and Minnesota Southeast Technical College to participate in the Republican and Democratic caucuses.
The Republican caucus was held at Winona Middle School and had a turnout of about 300 people. Most of the participants were college students.
Through an informal straw poll, John McCain won with 85 votes, Ron Paul came in second with 76, and Mike Huckabee was close behind with 75 votes. Mitt Romney came in fourth place with 62 votes and Alan Keyes received one vote.
The Democrats had two caucus locations in Winona. One was at Winona Senior High, where more than 500 people attended.
The vote was split mainly between the top Democratic contenders, Barack Obama, with 492, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, with 148. Winona State students made up a large portion of the vote.
The other Democratic caucus location was at Minnesota Southeast Technical College, which also had a large student turnout. There, Obama received 505 votes compared to Clinton’s 157.
Many caucus-goers were surprised at the large turnouts, especially the sheer number of college students. Bill Harris, the Democratic chair of a Winona precinct, said, “This turnout is much larger than two years ago, which we thought was going to be the largest turnout on record.”
Young voters were not the only ones inspired to come to the caucus on Tuesday. A large number of middle-aged and elderly voters attended as well. One middle-aged man said this was the first time he’d come to a caucus in fifteen years.
In addition to voting for presidential candidates, attendees were also a part of selecting a chair for their precinct, selecting delegates to go to a county convention and presenting motions to the group, specifically changing party platforms.
In Minnesota as a whole, Obama defeated Clinton, receiving 67 percent of the Democratic vote compared to Clinton’s 32 percent.
On the Republican side, Romney defeated his rivals, receiving forty-one percent of the vote.
Minnesota’s contests took place on the same night as 23 other states, a day that has come to be referred to as Super Tuesday.
In the Democratic Party, Obama and Clinton broke almost even in total delegates on Super Tuesday, with Obama winning more total states, but Clinton winning larger states with more delegates.
In the Republican races on Super Tuesday, McCain came out ahead, gaining more delegates than his rivals. Also, McCain’s chief rival for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney, has suspended his bid for the presidency.
A candidates’ forum, displaying the Republican candidates for Representative of Minnesota’s First Congressional District was hosted by the College Republicans and held at Winona State on Feb. 7. Dr. Brian Davis, Rep. Randy Demmer and Sen. Dick Day criticized the policies of Rep. Tim Walz in hopes of getting the Republican nomination.

Contact Greg at GJEichte1670@winona.edu