Control of Minnesota House remains uncertain; no surprises in Minnesota congressional races
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Here’s what we know about some of the key races in Minnesota as of 7:30 a.m. Wednesday:
Minnesota Senate stays in DFL control; no definitive word on which party will hold the House majority.
Incumbents won reelection in Minnesota’s U.S. House and Senate races; a Democrat won the open 3rd District seat.
Voters were poised to continue using lottery money to fund natural resources projects.
The Minnesota Senate will stay in DFL control, while the outcome for the state House of Representatives remained uncertain Wednesday morning — with the potential for a 67-67 tie.
Control of the Senate hinged on the outcome of a single special election Tuesday, in District 45 in the western Twin Cities metro area. Former DFL state Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart defeated Republican Kathleen Fowke with 52 percent of the vote, to maintain DFL control of the seat and the Senate. The chamber had been tied 33-33 after former Democratic state Sen. Kelly Morrison stepped down earlier this year to run for Congress.
The picture was far less clear for the Minnesota House. Results from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website early Wednesday showed each party winning or leading in the race for 67 seats in the House — with at least two seats poised for publicly funded recounts due to a margin of less than 0.5 percent. The DFL had held a 70-64 majority at the end of last session.
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If the current results hold, it would not be the first time the Minnesota House has been evenly divided. The same situation happened in 1979.
The results will determine what lawmakers can move forward in terms of the state’s next two-year budget funding public schools, health care programs, law enforcement and a range of state agencies.
One constant will be the DFL governor. With the defeat of the Democratic presidential ticket, Tim Walz is set to serve out the remaining two years of his term after spending months crisscrossing the country campaigning with his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Democrats have held slim majorities in both legislative chambers for two years and made the case to voters that they should get an extension. They see the next term as critical to moving ahead with progressive priorities and to finish setting up a state paid family and medical leave program and legal cannabis marketplace.
Republicans, meanwhile, argued that DFLers used their majorities to move the state too far to the left and the state needs more political moderation with divided government.
While contests all around the state decided control of the Legislature, a smaller fraction were viewed as competitive for the parties and outside groups. Those were focused in the suburbs and in a handful of greater Minnesota districts where political control has swung back and forth in recent years or where DFL incumbents have stepped down.
Two of those races appeared close enough to trigger publicly funded recounts, with all precincts reporting Wednesday:
Central Minnesota’s District 14B, where incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Wolgamott of St. Cloud was leading Republican challenger Sue Ek by 28 votes — 0.14 percent.
District 54A in the southwest Twin Cities metro area, where Democratic Rep. Brad Tabke of Shakopee was leading Republican challenger Aaron Paul by 13 votes — 0.06 percent.
Three other House seats flipped from Democrats to Republicans:
In an open seat in District 7B on the Iron Range, Republican Cal Warwas defeated Democrat Lorrie Janatopoulos. Democratic Rep. Dave Lislegard chose not to run for re-election to the seat, which had been the last remaining Democratic-held seat in a part of the state that had been a longtime DFL stronghold.
In south-central Minnesota’s District 18A, Republican challenger Erica Schwartz ousted DFL Rep. Jeff Brand of St. Peter. The district has see-sawed between DFL and GOP control in recent years.
In an open seat in southeast Minnesota’s District 26A, which includes Winona, Republican Aaron Repinski defeated Democrat Sarah Kruger. The seat had long been held by Democratic Rep. Gene Pelowski, who chose not to run for reelection
Going into the election, both parties also said they hoped to see a boost from candidates at the top of the ticket. Republicans said former President Donald Trump could deliver a bump in support for GOP candidates down the ballot and Democrats said U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Walz’s presence on the ticket would help DFLers.
Whichever party wins control of the Minnesota House will have to work with a DFL governor and the DFL-controlled Senate.
Ahead of the election, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, told MPR’s Politics Friday that Democrats prioritized voters’ top concerns over the last two years — safeguarding reproductive health care and adding new state spending to offset the price of college, child care and housing.
“Democrats have delivered what families have asked for help with affordability, whether it's child care, whether it's housing, whether it's the affordability of prescription drugs, we have answered the request for help for people to afford their lives,” Hortman said.
House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said Minnesotans are still feeling the pinch of high prices. She said that Republicans would reduce tax rates and improve education outcomes for children, if elected.
“It is too hard for Minnesotans to be able to afford the basics in their life and just living their lives as they should be. We are looking forward to fixing that, to correcting it,” Demuth said. “So again, (we’re) going back to that balanced government, that balanced control, where all voices, all ideas are heard.”
Hortman has said that divided government in St. Paul has historically yielded gridlock.
A sleepy U.S. Senate race
Minnesota did something it hasn’t in modern times: Elect a U.S. senator to a fourth term.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar defeated Republican challenger Royce White, a result even many Republicans were expecting that outcome given her durable approval rating, her significant financial advantage and a GOP opponent who was struggling to unify his party around him.
White won his party’s nomination in August. He’s been at odds since with people within the GOP, sometimes shouting them down online and suggesting they were sellouts. White, a conservative podcaster and former professional basketball player, ran on a platform of tackling federal debt and keeping the U.S. out of foreign conflicts whether they involve allies or not.
Klobuchar has a record of coasting to election. She won each of her prior races by double digits. Polling indicated that this race was shaping up in similar fashion. She spent $21 million on this campaign and had almost $4.3 million remaining as of mid-October. That was more than 50 times what White had to use in the final weeks.
Klobuchar will be the first four-term Minnesota senator since Henrik Shipstead, who was first elected in 1922 as a Farmer Labor Party member and who won the last of his four terms as a Republican in 1940.
A new member of Congress
Minnesota’s equally split congressional delegation welcomed a new face Tuesday, with incumbents gaining new terms.
The 3rd Congressional District picked a new member to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips. Former Democratic state Sen. Kelly Morrison defeated former judge and ex-state legislator Tad Jude, who was the Republican nominee in the western suburban district.
Morrison is a physician by training and stepped into the race when Philips ran unsuccessfully to be the Democratic nominee for president.
She won her race just as Republicans took control of the U.S. Senate, but said that she remained hopeful that women's reproductive rights would continue to be protected.
“Voters have have made it clear that they want to be able to make their own reproductive health care decisions, and I think that many Republicans have have listened to that,” Morrison said. “You’ve heard them softening their messages quite a bit around abortion. It's like the hope that there is opportunity for us to work together and protect reproductive freedom for all Americans.”
Despite the vacancy, it wasn’t the most closely watched U.S. House race.
That distinction belonged to the 2nd Congressional District covering many eastern suburbs and farm communities to the south of the Twin Cities. There, three-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig fended off a stiff challenge from first-time Republican candidate Joe Teirab, a former prosecutor and ex-Marine.
Millions of dollars flowed into that race, although the spending wasn’t as robust as prior races in the district. Craig won the seat in 2018 after falling short two years earlier. She won hard-fought races in 2020 and 2022.
By virtue of their demographic makeups and past outcomes, the other six races for U.S. House in Minnesota weren’t on the radar for the opposing party to flip the districts.
The newest member of the delegation, 1st District Republican Rep. Brad Finstad, was reelected to a second two-year term. His DFL challenger in the southern Minnesota District was Rachel Bohman.
In the St. Paul-concentrated 4th District, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum is in strong shape to secure a 13th term. She is already the longest-serving member of the current delegation. Her challenger is Republican May Lor Xiong in the district which includes St. Paul.
In Minneapolis, 5th District DFL U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar defeated Republican challenger Dalia al-Aqidi in one of the most solidly Democratic districts in the country. Omar did have to campaign hard to win a DFL primary in August.
In central Minnesota’s 6th District, a member of House Republican leadership won a sixth term. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who traveled the country on behalf of other candidates this fall, aired television ads but was viewed as safe in his campaign against Democratic candidate Jeanne Hendricks.
Two northern Republican lawmakers also secured new terms.
They are second-term Rep. Michelle Fischbach in the expansive western Minnesota district that runs from the Canadian border down into the southern part of the state. Her DFL challenger was Democrat A. John Peters.
And in northeastern Minnesota, Republican Rep. Pete Stauber was reelected to a fourth term. He had a repeat challenger in former state Rep. Jen Schultz.