Thinking Minnesota Poll: No one wants a new flag

According to the latest Thinking Minnesota poll, an overwhelming majority of Minnesotans oppose the new state flag set to become official tomorrow as Minnesota celebrates Statehood Day. Fifty-two percent of poll respondents prefer to keep the current flag and 16% want to go back to the drawing board and come up with a different design. Only 24% support using the new flag designed by a committee empowered by the legislature last year. Only 6% had no opinion of the new flag, representing a very high awareness of the issue.

The poll was conducted on behalf of Center of the Amewrican Experiment by Meeting Street Insights, a nationally recognized polling operation based in Charleston, S.C. Using a mix of cellular and landline phones, the company interviewed 500 registered voters across Minnesota from March 11-13, 2024. The margin of error is +-4.38 percent.

“A new state flag with such little popular support provides the perfect metaphor for the entire 2023 legislative session, where the DFL trifecta took Minnesota off the cliff,” said John Hinderaker, President of Center of the American Experiment. “No one asked them to spend the entire surplus, no one asked for tax increases, no one asked for the blackout bill, and certainly no one asked for a new state flag.”

The question on the flag was worded as follows:

“As you may know, a state commission recently approved a new state flag for Minnesota. The new design will replace Minnesota’s existing flag this May unless the legislature takes further action. With this in mind, what do you believe should happen? Should we…”

Use the new state flag beginning this May 24%
Design a different state flag 16%
Keep the old state flag 52%
Don’t Know 6%

The full results of the poll will be released in the Spring issue of Thinking Minnesota magazine.