1A Across America: Are The Red Cracks In The Blue Wall Getting Redder?

WAMU 88.5 | By James Morrison

Published November 11, 2020 at 1:52 PM CST

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden addresses the media about the Trump Administration’s lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act on at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware.

America is starkly divided among urban-rural lines. It’s not new. But this election cycle showed that America’s political chasms are widening in some parts of the country as they’re closing in others.

President-elect Joe Biden reclaimed key “blue wall” states that Barack Obama won and Hillary Clinton lost. But he underperformed his former running mate in the rural parts of these Midwestern states.

1A Across America field producer James Morrison goes to southern Minnesota to inspect the deep red cracks that run through the blue wall.

Correction: This story says President-elect Joe Biden won Winona County by three votes. This was based off an unofficial count. At last check, Biden is leading in Winona County by 106 votes.

1A Across America is funded through a grant from The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967 that is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting.