The election last Tuesday had surprising outcomes, not just on the national level, but here in Minnesota as well. While most anticipated the Senate Republicans to maintain their majority, and the House to potentially flip to Republican control, we saw the opposite happen and now have all three branches of government controlled by the Democrats.
Governor Walz has been officially re-elected to his second four-year term and all other constitutional offices will remain under Democratic control. The House DFL grew their majority by a couple seats and the Senate majority flipped from Republican to the Democrat controlled, with the Democrats now holding a one seat majority. The last time Minnesota had the same party in charge of all three branches of government was almost ten years ago, in 2014.
Here is the new make-up of the Senate and House and their newly elected leaders:
Minnesota Senate
- Republicans: 24 returning members and 9 new members: total of 33 members
- Senate Minority Leader: Sen. Mark Johnson
- Senate Minority Leadership: Sen. Karin Housley, Sen. Justin Eichorn, Sen. Bill Weber, Sen. Julia Coleman
- Democrats: 20 returning members and 14 new members: total of 34 members
- Senate Majority Leader: Sen. Kari Dziedzic
- President of the Senate: Sen. Bobby Jo Champion
- Tax Committee Chair: Sen. Ann Rest
- Finance Committee Chair: Sen. John Marty
- Senate Minority Leader: Sen. Mark Johnson
Minnesota House
- Republicans: 39 returning members and 25 new members: total of 64 members
- House Minority Leader: Rep. Lisa Demuth
- Democrats: 48 returning members and 22 new members: total of 70 members
- Speaker of the House: Rep. Melissa Hortman
- House Majority Leader: Rep. Jamie Long
- House Majority Whip: Rep. Athena Hollins
There are still a lot of unknowns about committee structure, committee chairs, and rosters; we anticipate committee chairs to be appointed before the Thanksgiving holiday and committee rosters to be made public by mid-December. It is also too early to know the leading priorities from the House, Senate and Governor’s office; however, many people have pointed towards the following as part of the laundry list of leading issues that the Democrats will want to make progress on this session:
- K-12 education funding
- Tax increases on the highest earners
- Legalizing marijuana
- Protecting abortion access
- Higher environmental standards
- Criminal just reform
Looking ahead, one of ARRM’s main focuses is on the newly elected legislators. Following the election there will be 70 Freshman legislators, this represents almost 35% of the entire legislative body. It is now our job to meet with these folks, as well as returning legislators, and educate them about the important role that disability services play in communities across Minnesota. If you know your new district number and newly elected legislator, reach out to them today; congratulate them on their victory, talk about the workforce crisis and the immediate support we need from the legislature, and invite them out for a site visit.
If you aren’t sure who to contact, ARRM is working on gathering all that information for you and will have it ready to go this week with some simple messaging to include when reaching out to your new legislators. Watch for more information in our next newsletter.
As always, please reach out with any questions!
--Sara Grafstrom