Swift County, a small rural enclave about two and a half hours west of the Twin Cities, voted for President Obama twice, in 2008 and 2012. But in 2016, President Trump attracted 60 percent of the county’s vote. And he just missed becoming the first Republican president to win Minnesota’s electoral votes since Richard Nixon in 1972. The shifting political terrain in Swift County offers a window into the nation’s broader political tectonics, shifts that have shaken up Washington on an increasingly frequent basis, shifts that gave us President Obama — and President Trump.
How the Obama phenomenon and Trump earthquake happened
