Dem 47
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GOP 53
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Democrats Capture the Minnesota State Senate

For a while now, control of the Minnesota legislature has been a matter of inches. It has been a strange ride. During most of the 2024 legislative session, the DFL (Minnesota Democrats) had a (very bare) trifecta. Both parties thought they had a shot at winning both chambers in the 2024 elections. Initial results showed that the DFL had a one-seat majority in the Senate, 34-33, with a 67-67 tie in the House. One House DFLer won by 14 votes. Then it turned out that 20 votes had not been counted. And on Dec. 20, a judge ruled that the winning DFLer was ineligible because he didn't meet the state's residency requirement. The DFLer conceded that the judge was right and resigned. This gave the Republicans a 67-66 majority in the House. The next day, state Sen. Kari Dziedzic (DFL) died, creating a 33-33 tie in the Senate. So, a tied state House and a DFL-majority state Senate very quickly became a GOP-majority state House and a tied Senate..

A special election was called for Jan. 28 (Tuesday) and DFL candidate Doron Clark won the special election, giving the DFL the 34-33 state Senate majority again. He beat Republican Abigail Wolters.

When Clark takes his seat, that will end the power-sharing agreement and the DFL will have full control of the Senate. However, the Republicans control the state House 67-66 with one vacancy, so the Democrats are just shy of the trifecta. There will be a special election for the contested House seat. There is a conflict over the date of the special election, with the Republicans citing one law and the DFL citing a different law. One law states that the governor must wait 22 days after the start of a legislative session to call a special election, but another law states that the governor shall call a special election at the earliest possible time. A judge will have to decide that. But even in the best case for the DFL, they will control the Senate and have a tie in the House. (V)



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