Trump to headline Minnesota Republican Party fundraising dinner

• Just last weekend, donors at the Republican National Committee's spring meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., were shown a deck arguing that Minnesota could be flipped, Axios' Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write.

State of play: Minnesota hasn't gone red in the presidential election since 1972. However, recent polls have shown Trump and Biden are in a dead heat.

What they're saying: Minnesota Republican Party chair David Hann said in a statement that he could "think of no one more fitting" than Trump to headline the dinner, which honors "leaders who have been most impactful in promoting our American values."

The other side: DFL Party chair Ken Martin countered that tying their fate to Trump's will result in losses for the GOP across the board this November.

• "Republicans up and down the ballot will have to answer for why they are abandoning Minnesota values and kissing Donald Trump's ring."

By the numbers: Trump came within about 45,000 votes of flipping Minnesota in 2016 — a margin of just 1.5 percentage points. It was the state's strongest performance by a GOP presidential candidate in decades.

• In 2020, he doubled down, holding several rallies and increasing spending. At one event in Duluth, he vowed never to return if he lost.

Biden ultimately carried Minnesota by a comfortable margin of roughly seven percentage points that year.