For all the millions of dollars and energy the Republican and Democratic parties poured into their national political conventions, they didn’t get much bang for their buck in Minnesota. 

According to our exclusive new KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, 24% of “likely voters” in Minnesota say they watched a lot of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Another 43% said they watched a little of the DNC and 33% said they didn’t watch at all. We found similar numbers for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The poll shows 18% watched a lot of the RNC, 51% watched a little and 31% didn’t watch at all.

“The electorate is pretty divided and opinions are pretty well fixed and therefore it’s unlikely that you’ll get big movements of public opinion during the conventions and you may not get it between now and Election Day,” says Carleton College political analyst Steven Schier.

As for the impact of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s endorsement of Donald Trump shortly after Kennedy dropped out of the race, 18% of respondents in Minnesota say the endorsement will help Trump a lot, 35% say it will help a little, while a combined 10% say it will hurt Trump a little or a lot.

“The Kennedy campaign supporting Donald Trump does help Donald Trump,” says Schier. “It broadens his ability to reach voters he otherwise would not.”

While the two political conventions didn’t exactly captivate Minnesotans or television viewers across the country, the upcoming presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is likely to command a lot of voter interest.

According to our poll, 50% of respondents say they “definitely” plan to watch, 34% say they “may watch” but are not certain and only 7% say they won’t watch.

“It’ll be one of the major events of the year politically and it could have a big effect on the presidential race nationally and here in Minnesota,” Schier says.

You can see that debate on ABC News and 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on Tuesday, September 10 at 8 p.m.

Our survey included 40% who identified themselves as Democrats, 35% as Republicans and 22% as independents. SurveyUSA interviewed 800 adults from the state of Minnesota 08/27/24 through 08/29/24. Of the adults, 704 were identified as being registered to vote; of the registered voters, 635 were determined by SurveyUSA to be likely to vote in the November general election and were asked the substantive questions which follow. This research was conducted online, using nonprobability sample of online adult panelists chosen randomly by Lucid Holdings LLC of New Orleans. The combined pool of survey respondents was weighted to US Census ACS targets for gender, age, race, education, and home ownership.