MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota voters were worried about the economy and the war in Iraq and looking for a president who would cause change. They picked Barack Obama.

Preliminary exit polling showed Obama’s support cut across economic and geographic lines in Minnesota.

Exit polling found that nearly two-thirds of Election Day voters thought the economy was the most important issue facing the country, with the war in Iraq a distant second.

About 90 percent of voters said they thought the economy was in “not so good shape” or worse. A nearly equal share were worried about the direction of the national economy next year.

Both Obama and Republican John McCain promised a break with the past during their campaigns, a solid appeal in a state where about three-quarters of voters disapproved of how Bush was handling his job.

Voters said the top reason they chose their candidate was his ability to bring about needed change. Obama took more than 90 percent of those voters. The second most popular choice was for the candidate who “shares my values.” McCain handily won that group.

Obama won over parts of the electorate that often go for Republicans. He won in the collar of suburbs around the Twin Cities — an area that Bush won by about 10 points in 2004 even as he lost the state. Obama was also leading in the conservative, rural west.

Obama won among families making less than $100,000 year, which is common for Democrats, but he also won among families that make $100,000 a year or more. Four years ago, Bush won that group.

Self-described independents were about a quarter of the voters on Tuesday, and in the presidential race they broke heavily for Obama.

While Obama easily carried Minnesota, the state’s U.S. Senate race was too close to call early Tuesday evening, with Democrat Al Franken being unable to replicate the broad appeal of the top of the ticket.

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Franken were about tied in the suburbs and the rural west. Franken was leading in the east and the Twin Cities. A third candidate, Independent Dean Barkley, was polling in double digits throughout the state, but wasn’t leading in any area.

One thing a majority of the voters could agree on, however, was both Franken and Coleman attacked each other unfairing during the campaign.

The exit poll of 2,136 Minnesota voters was conducted for AP by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International in a random sample of 45 precincts statewide. Results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

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