Voters in Minnesota were looking for a change from the norm this time around, and a state that has typically voted Democratic in major elections nearly chose Republican Donald Trump for president over Hillary Clinton.

 

The City of Clearwater and Clearwater Twp. voters have historically voted Republican, and that didn’t change Tuesday.

 

Clearwater City voters chose Trump by a wide margin, 615 to 234.

 

They chose Dist. 6 Representative incumbent Tom Emmer, 589 to 288 over David Snyder.

 

They picked Republican Andrew Mathews for the Dist. 15 senate seat over Chilah Brown, 580 to 286 and voted to re-elect incumbent Jim Newberger, 561 to 306 over DFLer Karla Scapanski as Dist. 15B Representative.

 

But in local non-partisan elections, voters decided to make some changes.

 

In the race for Clearwater mayor, incumbent Pete Edmonson narrowly beat out challenger Vern Scott by a margin of 429 to 417. There were also 20 write-in votes. 

 

In the race for two city council seats, more than 1,360 votes were cast, and neither of the two incumbents were re-elected. Chris Ritzer had 269 votes and Mike Ranum received 158.

 

The two new council members will be Andrea Lawrence Wheeler with 377 votes and former Clearwater City Attorney Richard Petty, who got 312 votes. Both currently serve on the Clearwater Parks Commission.

 

The two other first-time candidates for city council also received good support. Jess Clothier received 133 votes and Jacob Vickroy got 108.

 

Clearwater Twp. voters also favored Trump over Clinton by a wide margin, 596 to 215.

 

They chose incumbent Republican Tom Emmer over challenger David Snyder, 588 to 245 for the Dist. 6 Representative seat.

 

They picked Andrew Mathews over Chilah Brown, 589 to 226 in the Dist. 15 senate race and chose Dist. 15B incumbent (R) Jim Newberger over Karla Scapanski, 573 to 251.

 

In the local contests, they elected an incumbent and one new supervisor.

 

Incumbent Bill Langenbacher held off challenger Sue Henstein, 385 to 298 for the Supervisor B seat.

 

Former Wright County Commissioner Rose Thelen, and former Clearwater Twp. supervisor, was elected for the Supervisor C seat with 311 votes. John Notsch received 261 votes and Duane Sprague had 158. That seat had no incumbent. Current Supervisor Dan Mol decided not to seek re-election. 

 

Jon Bigalk received 595 votes to win the seat as new township treasurer. He was running unopposed.

 

In the race for Dist. 2 Wright County Commissioner,  which serves Clearwater, Darek Vetsch beat Tom Perrault, 6,111 to 4,614. That seat was up for grabs after current Commissioner Pat Sawatzke decided not to run for re-election.

 

In the other two Wright County Commissioner races, Dist. 4 incumbent Michael Potter beat challenger Mary Wetter, 4972 to 4,298, and Dist. 5 incumbent Charlie Borrell beat Jason Franzen, 6,934 to 5,238.