Star Tribune
Control of the MN Senate will be decided by one seat
A single western Twin Cities contest on Tuesday’s ballot will provide the tie-breaking vote in the Minnesota state Senate, determining whether Republicans or DFLers control the chamber.
Republican Kathleen Fowke, in her second run for office, seeks to turn the seat red. Former Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart, a Democrat, wants voters to return her to St. Paul.
All 134 state House of Representatives seats were on the ballot Tuesday. But of the 67 Senate seats, this was the only one on the ballot because of a special election.
Results are expected later tonight.
This Senate district that surrounds Lake Minnetonka is is up for grabs because Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, stepped down to run for the Third Congressional District seat. She was on the ballot Tuesday as well, facing Republican former judge Tad Jude.
Morrison resigned the seat after the 2024 legislative session, leaving the Senate at a tie with 33 DFLers and 33 Republicans. The Senate’s tie hasn’t been an issue because it hasn’t gone into session since Morrison’s departure, but the 2025 legislative session starts Jan. 14.
Fowke, 60, a real estate agent and entrepreneur, campaigned as a pragmatist, a moderate who would restore balance at the Capitol after two years of the DFL controlling both chambers and the governor’s office.
Republican Kathleen Fowke leads a group of volunteers on a door knocking campaign in Long Lake on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch told the Star Tribune last month that it’s a tight race with two good candidates. “Neither side should take this one for granted, and it’s for all the marbles in the Minnesota Senate,” she said.
PARK RAPIDS, MINN. — In western Minnesota’s deep-red Seventh Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach easily won a third term.
Democrat A. John Peters challenged Fischbach, a Donald Trump loyalist from Litchfield who was first elected in 2020 when she ousted DFLer Collin Peterson, who held the seat for 30 years. Fischbach, 58, has since amassed one of the most conservative voting records in Minnesota’s delegation.
She won in 2022 by about 40 percentage points and nearly 30 percentage points in the August primary. She was ahead by similar margins in early returns.
Fischbach said in a statement before the victory that “the election will validate the work I’ve been doing on behalf of the good people in western Minnesota. I am honored to be their voice in D.C. advocating for decency, common sense, and our rural way of life.”
Audrey Brasel, 37, a nurse practitioner in Park Rapids, voted for Fischbach after her shift Tuesday night at Essentia Health-Park Rapids Clinic. She cast an all-Republican ballot.
“Those leaders are the people that align with what I believe and just want to preserve, I guess, the standards of our country and preserve our freedom,” Brasel said.
Peters, 76, of Browerville, twice ran unsuccessfully for Minnesota Senate. He was hoping to get 35% of votes. Polls gave him a 1% shot at winning.
The Seventh Congressional District is Minnesota’s largest by land area, spanning 38 counties from the Canadian border nearly to Iowa.
The contest played out largely in the fastest-growing Twin Cities suburbs and exurbs such as Lake Elmo, Shakopee, Lakeville, Chanhassen and Blaine, as well as in St. Cloud, Duluth and the college towns of Winona and St. Peter.
Early results from St. Peter and North Mankato had Republican Erica Schwartz leading incumbent DFLer Jeff Brand, who has served two nonconsecutive terms representing District 18A. The seat has swung between the two parties for the past two election cycles.
DFL Rep. Gene Pelowski’s retirement after serving 38 years shook up the race for House District 26A, which includes the college town of Winona. FairVote MN’s Sarah Kruger ran as the DFLer against Winona City Council Member Aaron Repinski. Pelowski won comfortably in 2022, and Biden carried the district by 10 points in 2020, but Republicans said the area is trending conservative.
GOP Rep. Mark Wiens won the House District 41A seat in Lake Elmo and Afton by just 128 votes in 2022, and is retiring after one term. Former St. Paul police officer and DFLer Lucia Wroblewski ran for the seat against Republican Wayne Johnson, a former Washington County commissioner.
House District 54A in Shakopee is held by DFL Rep. Brad Tabke, the former Shakopee mayor, who ran against Aaron Paul, a Bloomington police officer. Tabke was one of a small bipartisan group of legislators leading a push to legalize sports betting in Minnesota, so his political fate could have dimensions much larger than his suburban district.
In House District 57B in Lakeville, Republican Rep. Jeff Witte ran for re-election in a district that sits smack in the middle of the Second Congressional District. That larger contest has meant both parties pumped resources into the area. Brian Cohn, a political newcomer, was the DFL’s nominee. President Joe Biden carried the district in 2020.
Early returns from Minnesota’s only constitutional amendment question on the November ballot showed voters favoring renewal of dedicated lottery funding for the outdoors, a system that has delivered more than $1 billion to environmental projects since it began 36 years ago.
For the measure to pass, more than 50% of voters must say “yes” to the continued flow of Minnesota State Lottery cash into the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Since voters first adopted dedicated lottery funding for the outdoors in 1988, the pipeline of money has pumped tens of millions of dollars a year for clean water, wildlife habitat, environmental education, trails, land acquisition and other projects beneficial to natural resources.
If the final vote is a “yes,” the system will be in place at least until 2050. If the measure fails, lottery money will continue to flow to the trust fund unless the Legislature changes it.
The money is shepherded by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). The yearly recommendations must be approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor for the money to be released. In the current fiscal year, the trust fund generated $76.6 million to underwrite 101 projects. Next year, the withdrawal from the fund will surpass $100 million for the first time.
Previous statewide votes in 1990 and 1998 overwhelmingly supported constitutional dedication of lottery funds for the preservation and restoration of wild places. To keep it going, a broad-based coalition of outdoors-minded groups has campaigned for yet another victory. The group, known as Minnesotans for Our Great Outdoors, has been reminding voters that leaving the question blank counts as a “no.”
The system for distributing the annual proceeds wouldn’t change if the amendment passes. That process, starting with projects selected by LCCMR, is governed by the Legislature. But this year’s proposed constitutional amendment would increase the maximum allowable annual draw from the trust fund from 5.5% to 7%. To address the additional 1.5%, the Legislature created a new community grant program for underserved organizations and communities. To be overseen by the Department of Natural Resources, it would dole out money in consultation with an advisory council for projects consistent with the constitutional purpose of the trust fund.
