Control of Minnesota Capitol at stake; voters to pick at least 1 new member of Congress, too
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Control of the Minnesota Legislature hung in the balance Tuesday as voters determined who would fill all 134 House seats and one winner-takes-the-majority seat in the Minnesota Senate.
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, although who that person is could change based on the presidential race.
Democrats have held slim majorities in both chambers for two years and have 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, have 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.
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While contests all around the state will decide the result, a smaller fraction are viewed as competitive for the parties and outside groups. Those are 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.
Both parties also said they hope 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 Gov. Tim Walz’s presence on the ticket would help DFLers.
Whichever party wins will have to work with a DFL governor, though it’s not yet determined who that will be come January. If Walz is elected vice president, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan would move up to the role and the Senate president would become Minnesota’s next lieutenant governor.
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 reducing 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 Senate race
Minnesota was staged to do something it hasn’t in modern times: Elect a U.S. senator to a fourth term.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar was waiting Tuesday to see if that would be the 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.
That challenger, Royce 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.
Klobuchar 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.
If Klobuchar wins, she’d 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 was sure to welcome one new face Tuesday, with incumbents mostly in shape to gain new terms. A few challengers hoped for sudden lifts to spoil those returns to Washington.
The 3rd Congressional District was picking a new member to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips. Former Democratic state Sen. Kelly Morrison and former judge and ex-state legislator Tad Jude running as the Republican nominee in the western suburban district.
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 faced 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, is after a second two-year term. His DFL challenger in the southern Minnesota District is 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 is the heavy favorite against 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 pursued 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 were also seen as likely to secure 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 had a repeat challenger in former state Rep. Jen Schultz. Stauber was seeking a fourth term.