Kare11
How a handful of votes could decide which party has control at the Minnesota State Capitol
Election results show Republicans and Democrats may each have 67 seats in the Minnesota House, but at least two races could head to a recount.
ST PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota State Capitol is filled with big personalities and lengthy debates, but which party has control next year could be decided by a very small number of voters.
University of Minnesota political professor Larry Jacobs said as of Wednesday evening there is a dead-even tie in the Minnesota House with 67 Republicans and 67 Democrats.
“My breath is still being held. We are in the middle of a very close battle,” Jacobs said. “It’s really rare. You have to go into the history books.”
According to the Minnesota Legislature’s website, Minnesota hasn’t experienced a tie in the house since 1979. Records show the two parties argued over who would fill the role as Speaker of the House, since neither party could claim the position without a majority in the House.
The Secretary of State took over the role temporarily until the two parties worked out a deal. However, records show that deal between the parties eventually fell apart during the final days of the session.
According to the Minnesota Legislature’s records, the last 10 days of the 1979 legislative session included:
Fists slammed on desks, cries of order that were ignored, protests and dissents being logged in the Journal of the House, a walk out of DFL representatives that left the House without a quorum, and official business left unfinished, necessitating a special session.”
Jacobs said history could repeat itself if the tie in this current election is ultimately upheld.
“The first question will be well, who is going to be the speaker? Who are going to be on the committees? How are the committees going to operate? There will be a lot to sort out,” Jacobs said.
However, there is a decent chance the tie in the Minnesota House could be broken. Two of the races for seats in the Minnesota House are incredibly close. In District 14-B in Saint Cloud, the race was decided by just 28 votes. In District 54-A in Shakopee, the race was decided by a matter of just 13 votes.
Election officials in the respective counties, Scott County and Stearns County, both say that a recount is possible.
Officials say the losing candidates must request a recount, but their campaigns won’t have to pay for the recount because the margin of victory is lower than 0.5%, which is the requirement for a publicly funded recount.
Election officials in Scott County say the recount in the race for 54-A could happen sometime between Nov. 20 and Dec. 2.
Election officials in Stearns County say a recount in the race for 14-B would likely happen sometime during the week of Thanksgiving.
Election officials in both counties are currently working with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office to facilitate their potential recount should the candidates formally request one.
“These are very close races. It’s a few dozen votes. If you think of your extended family that might show up for a reunion, it’s that kind of difference,” Professor Jacobs says.
There is more at stake than just control over the Minnesota House. Jacobs said recounts in these two races could potentially determine whether one party has control over the entire Minnesota State Capitol.
“The Democrats have been able to hold the one seat that was up in the Senate, so they are going to have their one-seat majority in the Senate. The governor of course, Tim Walz, is back, so the Democrats have two of the three.”
The Democrats would have had a clean sweep of all three bodies if it weren’t for just a handful of votes in these two close races that have narrow victories by Republicans.
“Overall, it’s good news for the Republicans, because if it’s a tie, or it’s a majority, they are going to be able to block the Democrats,” Jacobs said/
So, if everything stands, could history repeat itself here in Minnesota? Jacobs said Minnesotans could be facing another chaotic session at the State Capitol, like they did back in 1979.
“I would hope there would be some effort on some issues to find agreement, but the reality is that the game plan for Republicans is to stop the Democrats. They don’t want to see spending. They don’t want to see taxes being increased. I don’t think it’s malice. I think it’s just very different political agendas,” Jacobs said.
Besides the races in 54-A and 14-B, nearly a half dozen other Minnesota house races were determined by a few hundred votes.
Candidates in those other close races could also request a recount, but election officials say since the margin of victory in those other races is higher than the margin of 0.5% the candidates would have to pay for the recount themselves.
Police say the shooting occurred in an alley between Oliver Avenue North and Penn Avenue North at around 5:30 p.m.
MINNEAPOLIS — Police are investigating after a teen was injured in a shooting Wednesday evening in north Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis Police Department was called to an alley between Oliver Avenue North and Penn Avenue North at around 5:30 p.m. on reports of a possible shooting. When officers arrived, they found a 16-year-old boy who had been shot.
Police say the teen heard a vehicle and gunfire before realizing he had been shot.
Officials say the boys is expected to survive, and no arrests have been made.
*This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Police say it happened near Lowry and Sheridan Avenue N.
MINNEAPOLIS — A 10-year-old girl was taken to the hospital Wednesday after being hit by a vehicle.
It happened near Lowry and Sheridan Avenue N, according to Minneapolis police, shortly before 8 p.m.
Police say the girl was running across the road when she was hit by a grey SUV that did not stop. Her injuries were described as non-life-threatening.
No one has been arrested in the case yet, according to officials.
The Minnesota House of Representatives will possibly no longer be controlled by Democrats
MINNEAPOLIS — Challenges await Governor Tim Walz when he returns to Minnesota.
Republicans gained enough seats on election night to possibly tie for control of the Minnesota House, ending the Democrats’ trifecta control of the state’s legislature.
“The Republican Party is gaining power, and they will now be a force to deal with,” said University of Minnesota Political Science Professor, Larry Jacobs. “I think Tim Walz has got his hands full.”
He said Walz had a hectic summer, rising to the top of the political pyramid before going through a trial by fire during the vice-presidential debate. Jacobs said Walz will now have to regain the trust of both Democrats and Republicans.
“One of Tim Walz’s challenges is going to be to win back trust from DFLers who he may have irritated because of some of the policies he’s advocated for on the national stage, but especially from Republicans who he has gone after on the national stage,” he said. “To be both the No. 1 attack dog against Donald Trump and JD Vance, and then come back to Minnesota and expect Republicans to sit down in good faith and negotiate a deal that would politically help the governor, I think that’s a lot to ask.”
Jacobs expects Walz to get pulled in a couple of directions on the national level as well as what’s happening at home. However, he said Minnesota must be his No. 1 priority.
“Minnesota is only going to work again if we can have dialogue across our differences, and I think that is the theme for Tim Walz moving forward,” said Jacobs. “Can you create a dialogue across the differences that define the political parties today?”
Jacobs said it will be key for Walz to work with Republicans to get a budget done to avoid a special session.
“He’s got to find a way in which he can talk and negotiate with Republicans, and I think the first step is talking to Republicans,” Jacobs said. “There’s a lot of scar tissue there from two years in which the DFL, literally, ran over the Republican agenda, ignored Republicans, again and again, passing remarkably extensive spending and programmatic agendas.”
Walz returns to Minnesota with two years left of his gubernatorial term, and Jacobs anticipates it will be a frustrating couple of years for the people who live here.
“We are going to be in a period where the No. 1 agenda for Republicans in practice is to be to stop the DFL,” he said. “The Republicans are going to use their newfound power to deadlock what had been kind of a steam engine of policies, just kind of moving through the Capitol.”
He said both sides will need to compromise because nobody is getting everything they want.
“For Progressives in Minnesota, time’s up,” Jacobs said. “We are not going to see the big spending packages, dreams of new programs that haven’t been passed, that is not going to happen. For Republicans who were hoping for major new tax cuts or maybe rolling back programs, I don’t think that’s going to happen either, and the DFL-controlled Senate will not agree to that.”
Jacobs said a complete deadlock won’t be popular with Minnesotans, so there is some incentive for Republicans to compromise, but not to the extent of tremendous spending that we saw in 2023. He said Democrats will need to find a way to continue their agenda, while not sparking Republican outcry.
He said even though Walz’s political future is uncertain he said one thing is for sure, the gubernatorial race in 2026 starts in January.
