Some Republican pundits and strategists believed Minnesota to be a potential pickup opportunity due to its increasingly favorable demographics and unexpectedly close result in the 2016 presidential election, along with potential backlash from the 2020 George Floyd protests, originating after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.However, every poll showed incumbent Democratic Senator Tina Smith in the lead by varying degrees.Smith was reelected to a full term in office by a margin of 5.2 points, making this the closest Senate election in Minnesota since 2008.The first, on October 2, 2020, was hosted by Minnesota Public Radio and was attended by Smith and Lewis.[51] U.S. senators Organizations Labor unions Newspapers U.S. executive branch officials U.S. representatives Other individuals Organizations Newspapers with Generic Democrat and Generic Republican Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican Smith and Lewis each won 4 of 8 congressional districts.