DAVID MARCUS: Minnesota GOP candidates keep Trump at arm's length as they eye a post-Trump party future

As the once-long shot Minnesota GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya has closed in on Democratic opponent Lt.

Gov.

Peggy Flanagan, the issue of President Donald Trump — who is not particularly popular in the Gopher State — has taken a unique turn.

For Tafoya, as well as gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth and others down ballot for the GOP — not to mention their potential voters — the general attitude toward Trump is that while they support much of what he has done, they also represent what a post-Donald Trump Republican Party could look like.

This week in St.

Cloud, I met John, who was sitting in his SUV outside the courthouse.

Covered in pro-Trump stickers and flags, the vehicle served as a kind of quiet, solo demonstration.

I mentioned to him that his "Trump 2028" flag, in particular, seemed a bit provocative.

He told me, "Well, I know he’s not really going to run again, I don’t think he legally can, but that’s just more for comedy and just for fun," adding that he thinks Vice President JD Vance is a great choice to run next, perhaps with Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his running mate.

When I asked whether he thought that Tafoya and Demuth should embrace Trump more, John told me, "That's the problem with Minnesota [Republicans].

We need to be hardcore Trump, not lukewarm, and I think that’s kind of biting them in the butt, they've got to be all in." Bob, who I had chatted with the night before, along with his wife Mary, were a counterpoint that showed the eye of the needle the Minnesota GOP needs to thread.

He’s retired from banking and is now a soybean farmer with mixed and nuanced views on Trump and especially his tariff regime.

"The tariffs hurt us," Bob confided to Fox News Digital, but added that "the administration provided subsidies, we got about $40,000 dollars last year that helped us stay afloat." But Bob also pointed out that things weren’t perfect before the tariffs, when it seemed countries like China were simply taking advantage of American farmers.

Likewise, Scott, a man in his 60s, who I met as he was walking his dog amid the pretty, old brick buildings of solid Midwestern St.