With no special session, the House almost certainly should return to a 67-67 tie when it meets again. Photo by Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America
Tuesday’s election filled two state legislative vacancies — and created two more.
State Rep. Kaohly Vang Her will depart her District 64A legislative seat after her surprise win for mayor in St. Paul over incumbent Melvin Carter.
Gov. Tim Walz is expected to call a special election to fill Her’s seat in a deep blue district. Her got 83% of the vote in her last state representative run in 2024.
Also last night, state Rep. Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger, DFL-Woodbury, predictably won her race for Senate District 47, garnering 62% of the vote against Republican candidate Dwight Dorau.
Related: DFL retains majority in Minnesota Senate after special elections
Hemmingsen-Jaeger replaces DFLer Nicole Mitchell, who resigned after a jury convicted her of burglarizing her stepmother’s home. Mitchell herself had beaten Dorau with 58% of the vote in 2022.
Of course, Hemmingsen-Jaeger leaves a vacant spot in the House, which will also be filled by a special election.
The district, which includes Woodbury and Maplewood, also leans heavily toward the DFL. Hemmingsen-Jaeger won it with 61% of the vote in 2024.
Republican Michael Holmstrom Jr. won a special election race Tuesday in Senate District 29 against DFLer Louis McNutt, taking in 62% of the vote.
That district mostly lies in Wright County and includes parts of Hennepin and Meeker. Holmstrom replaces Bruce Anderson, who died in July. With his landslide victory, Republicans once again have 33 state senators.
The Legislature is not set to meet again until Feb. 17.
Gov. Tim Walz’s idea to call a special session on preventing gun violence looks dead. Also, the governor made clear last week that he has no plans to call a special session to replace funds lost through the federal shutdown.
Related: In an upset, voters choose Kaohly Her over two-time Mayor Melvin Carter
With no special session, the House almost certainly should return to a 67-67 tie when it meets again.
The lower chamber will be bound by a power-sharing agreement hashed out in the last legislative session where there are co-chairs for each committee. Republican leader and current gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring will be speaker, while DFL head Zack Stephenson of Coon Rapids will replace Melissa Hortman as speaker emerita.
Another potential legislative vacancy did not materialize. State Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, lost to incumbent Jacob Frey in the Minneapolis mayoral race and will remain in the Minnesota Senate. Fateh is one of 34 DFLers there, giving his party a one-vote advantage in the upper chamber.
Editor’s note: This article first appeared on MinnPost and was written by state government reporter Matthew Blake. It is republished here with permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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