Democrats win Minnesota state House special election, setting up shared control of the chamber
Democrats won a Minnesota state House special election Tuesday night, The Associated Press projected, restoring a tie in the chamber and ending a monthslong power struggle in the Legislature.
Democrats won a Minnesota state House special election Tuesday night, The Associated Press projected, restoring a tie in the chamber and ending a monthslong power struggle in the Legislature.
The win in the reliably Democratic 40B state House district, in the northern suburbs of St. Paul, means that control of the chamber will be tied, with Democrats and Republicans each holding 67 seats — and that a power-sharing arrangement the two parties reached in February is likely to continue.
According to the AP’s projection, Democrat David Gottfried defeated Republican Paul Wikstrom in the special election.
The special election was scheduled after a state court ruled that the Democrat who’d won the race in the district in November, Curtis Johnson, had failed to meet residency requirements and couldn't be seated. (Johnson defeated Wikstrom in November.) Johnson’s exit had given Republicans a temporary one-seat majority in the state House.
Gottfried’s win prevents Republicans from being able to more robustly counter Democratic priorities in the state government, with the Democratic Party holding the governorship and a narrow one-seat majority in the Senate.
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