Brainerd, MN · how this place’s counties split between candidates in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain and there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Brainerd, MN, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
Total registered voters, over time
Registered voters
Voter registration in Brainerd, MN
Year
Total registered
2016
61,362
2018
60,745
2020
67,429
2022
68,353
2024
72,558
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+716 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +8,429 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Brainerd, MN in Brainerd, MN: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−393
2012
−26
2013
+199
2014
+32
2015
+176
2016
+711
2017
+916
2018
+744
2019
+598
2021
+1,935
2022
+1,425
2023
+778
2024
+618
2025
+716
The Brainerd lakes region, anchored by a paper-mill and tourism economy, has swung sharply toward Republican presidential candidates since 2008, making Crow Wing County a reliable bellwether for outstate Minnesota's political drift.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 26.4 points in 1936 and a Republican high of 63.5 points in 1904. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 2.5 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 31.9 points.
A population of 98,678, a 89% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $71,422 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Rice Lake, WI and Alexandria, MN.
Akashic
Political twins — metros
The metros whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Brainerd, MN, Minnesota. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/14660/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Brainerd, MN, Minnesota voted Republican by 31.9 points (R+31.9), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 61,729 votes cast, 20,473 went Democratic and 40,182 went Republican.
When did Brainerd, MN, Minnesota last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Brainerd, MN, Minnesota voted Democratic was 1996.
How many people live in Brainerd, MN, Minnesota?
Brainerd, MN, Minnesota has a population of 98,678 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Brainerd, MN, Minnesota?
Median household income in Brainerd, MN, Minnesota is $71,422 — below the national median of $80,734. The Minnesota state median is $89,062.
What is the political history of Brainerd, MN, Minnesota?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Brainerd, MN, Minnesota from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 11 went Democratic and 22 went Republican.
