ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Democratic and Republican leaders in the Minnesota House agreed on a power-sharing plan on Wednesday night to solve a three-week deadlock that the state’s chief justice said made the body “completely dysfunctional.”
The specifics of how the agreement will function were not shared right away. The main leaders from both the GOP and Democratic parties announced that they have reached an agreement to organize the Minnesota House starting Thursday. They will share more details on Thursday morning.
Democrats have not been at the state Capitol since the 2025 legislature session started on January 14. Republicans said that only 67 people, which is the number of GOP elected officials in the group, were needed for a quorum.
On January 24, the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed with the Democrats, deciding that 68 members need to be there to do business according to the state constitution. However, they said it’s up to the lawmakers to find a way to resolve the conflict.
Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon had been going to the House every day for the past few days to try to start a meeting. However, since there weren’t enough members present, he could only announce that the session was over and come back the next day. State law says that the secretary of state leads the House session until a speaker is chosen.
The House Republicans have a majority of 67 to 66, but this may change after a special election scheduled for March 11 to fill an empty spot. This election was announced by Democratic Governor Tim Walz on Wednesday. That election, in a heavily Democratic district that includes the St. Paul suburb of Roseville, is likely to restore the 67-67 tie that both sides agreed came out of the November election.
House Democrats acknowledged that Republicans have a temporary majority, but they said they wouldn’t go back to the Capitol unless the Republicans agreed to seat Democratic Rep. Brad Tabke. A judge decided that Tabke won reelection by only 14 votes in his district near Minneapolis. It’s a swing area, and the GOP has a good chance of winning a special election with low voter turnout.
The Supreme Court decision cancelled all the acts that House Republicans tried to carry out, including their choice of Lisa Demuth from Cold Spring as their speaker.
In blocking a quorum, House Democrats used tactics that politicians around the country have tried at least two dozen times to thwart their opponents.
The Minnesota Senate is now back to having a 34-33 majority for the Democrats after three weeks of working well together under a power-sharing deal. Democratic Senator Doron Clark from Minneapolis took the oath of office on Monday after winning a special election to replace Senator Kari Dziedzic, who passed away in December.
Leave a Comment