Minnesota secretary of state race: live results

Minnesota voters are deciding Tuesday whether to give Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon a fourth term or turn the office over to Republican challenger Tad Jude, with FOX 9 posting live, AP-powered results once polls close at 8 p.m. statewide.^[1]

The down-ballot contest will shape how Minnesota runs and safeguards elections over the next four years, as Simon defends his record of expanding access to the ballot while Jude campaigns on tightening voting rules and restoring confidence among skeptics of the system.^[1]

Simon, first elected in 2014 and in office since January 2015, has overseen Minnesota elections through intense national fights over voting access, pandemic-era rule changes, and a surge in baseless fraud claims after 2020, while the state continued to post among the highest turnout rates in the country. His reelection bid leans on that record and on arguing that making it easy to vote and hard to cheat are compatible goals, not opposing choices.

Jude, a former legislator and judge, has made photo ID to vote, aggressive cleanup of voter rolls, and broader fraud prevention in public programs central to his pitch, tying the secretary of state's work to a wider law-and-order theme popular with many Republicans. He has also promised to back a public vote on restoring Minnesota's former state flag, tapping into conservative backlash over the recent flag redesign and casting the office as a guardian of tradition as well as election rules. Libertarian candidate Chip Tangen has pushed a message of "maximum participation and maximum security," arguing that technology and transparent audits can protect the system without discouraging legitimate voters, while Green Party nominee Seth Kuhl-Stennes has centered his campaign on overhauling how votes are translated into power through proportional representation and broader use of ranked-choice voting.

The contest unfolds as debates over election security and disinformation remain highly polarized, even while many researchers and institutions describe their work as nonpartisan efforts to protect the process rather than tilt outcomes. That tension over what counts as neutral "safeguarding democracy" versus partisan advantage lingers in the background of Minnesota's secretary of state race, where the candidates largely agree that confidence in results must be rebuilt but differ sharply on whether the greater risk lies in ineligible ballots slipping through or in eligible voters being deterred. With live results flowing from the Associated Press after 8 p.m., Minnesota's choice will offer an early signal of how an upper-Midwest swing state wants its election system run heading into the next presidential cycle.^[1]

1. FOX 9