ST. PAUL, MINN. - The Minnesota House is once again evenly split at 67-67, following Democrat David Gottfried’s decisive victory in a special election held Tuesday night for House District 40B, representing Roseville and Shoreview.
Gottfried’s election filled the vacancy left by Democrat Curtis Johnson, who was declared ineligible in December by a judge for not residing in the district he had won in November.
Bills now require at least 68 votes to pass the House. This situation mandates a bipartisanship approach, perhaps not out of a mutual desire for collaboration between Democrats and Republicans, but because legislative mechanics require it for any decision-making or law-passing to occur.
Here is what they have agreed to:
Republican Rep. Lisa Demuth (Cold Spring) will remain Speaker of the House.
Republicans will also maintain control of the new Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, formed to address theft of public funds.
All other legislative committees will be co-chaired by members of the DFL (state's Democratic affiliate) and GOP, with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats serving on each committee.
This co-chair arrangement also applies to conference committees that reconcile differences between Senate and House bills. Describing the arrangement, former House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) explained:
"When the Democrat is chairing the committee, the Democrat will set the agenda. When the Republican is chairing the committee, the Republican will set the agenda. They will alternate the gavel daily."
Hortman told MPR that bipartisan policy is achievable under the power sharing agreement: "We can do policy, we just have to do policy that has bipartisan support."
"In the past, we did great policy on opioids. We made insulin more available for people who needed emergency insulin. We did an overhaul of how we treat vulnerable adults in Minnesota," she added.
"Those were all bipartisan things that went through a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. So we certainly can do lots of policy."
Before Gottfried's election last week, Republicans briefly leveraged their temporary one-seat advantage to advance bills aligned with their political platform. This included delaying paid leave, attempting to reverse the state's "duty to retreat" law, and proposing a ban on transgender athletes in girls' sports.
Such bills had little chance of passing without broader support but were advanced to highlight Republican priorities.
Democrats temporarily boycotted House sessions early in the year to prevent Republicans from seating committees or acting without bipartisan agreement, particularly when Republicans considered refusing to seat Rep. Brad Tabke (DFL-Shakopee), whose narrow election victory had been contested but ultimately upheld by the courts.
Democrats ended their boycott in early February after reaching the detailed power-sharing deal.
The new political environment demands cooperation rather than rewarding division. Minnesota lawmakers are facing a June 30 deadline to pass a two-year budget and avoid a government shutdown.