Minnesota Legislature Is Tied Up in Ties

Tied, not tied, tied, not tied—and tied again.

Since the November election, the Minnesota Legislature has faced ongoing uncertainty about which party controls its chambers in the 2025 session. There have been at least three shifts in the House and Senate, and now a Jan. 28 special election will resolve two unexpected vacancies. A lot is on the line for both parties: Whichever party controls the chambers will ultimately determine the direction policy takes in 2025.

Here’s the timeline of events so far.

Going into Election Day, Democrats controlled the House while the Senate was tied due to a vacancy. Functionally, though, Democrats held both chambers and the governor’s seat through all of Minnesota’s 2024 legislative session.

On election night, unofficial results left both Democrats and Republicans hoping for control in both chambers. Minnesota’s Legislature is known for frequent party shifts. Among the 99 state legislative chambers, Minnesota’s House has experienced the most party control flips over the past 50 years, having done so 10 times before this year.

The election seemed to bring clarity on who would hold power: Initial results showed that Democrats would have a one-seat majority in the Senate with a likely tie in the House. The House tie stemmed from a close race in House District 54A, where the Democratic candidate won by just 14 votes.

Subsequently, it was discovered that 20 ballots went missing in that race, which led the Minnesota Republican Party to sue for a new election. Contesting legislative election results is an option in almost every state, but overturning results is uncommon.

Tied chambers are rare, but not unheard of. Nationwide, over the past 20 years, elections have produced nine tied chambers—about one tie for every two-year election cycle. In the event of a tie, legislative chambers need to figure out how business will operate, as usually the majority party determines this. To solve this, half of state legislatures have rules written in statute. In the other half, including Minnesota, the parties write a power-sharing agreement that determines who gets committee appointments, who chairs committees, etc. This is the path Minnesota House Democrats and Republicans took in drafting an agreement for shared committee power in 2025.

This agreement soon proved unnecessary. On Dec. 20, a judge ruled that the winning Democratic House candidate in District 40B did not meet the state’s residency requirements. Legislative residency requirements vary by state, with some states simply requiring legislators to live in the district while others require them to live in the district for a specific amount of time. In Minnesota, legislators must reside in their district at least six months prior to the election, and evidence indicated the Democratic winning candidate had not lived in the district at all before the election. On Dec. 27, the candidate announced that he would not accept the seat, ending the tie in the House and giving Republicans a one-seat majority.

The very next day, Democratic Sen. Kari Dziedzic from District 60 died, creating a 33-33 tie in the Senate.

All this change occurred in just two months. And more change may still be on the horizon for Minnesota as special elections will be held to fill the vacancies in the Senate and House, and the House awaits the result of the court challenge to the election in District 54A. Half of states allow the governor, parties or other entities to fill a legislative vacancy through an appointment. Minnesota is one of the other 25 states that require a special election to be held. Both the Senate and House primary elections are scheduled for Jan. 14, with the special elections on Jan. 28.

However, even these dates are uncertain. The Minnesota Republican Party is suing to push the special election back, according to twincities.com, arguing that state law requires the governor to wait 22 days after the start of a legislative session to call a special election. Meanwhile, the governor is citing another statute stating that a special election shall be called “at the earliest possible time.”

Timeline of Minnesota Chamber Control

The tug-of-war will be settled in a Jan. 28 special election.

Post-election power changes occur more often than people might think. Legislators may retire, die, resign, change parties or be disqualified. And it’s not uncommon for these one-offs to have consequences statewide. In 2023, Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania House in a September special election. And earlier that year, North Carolina Republicans gained a veto-proof majority after a House Democrat switched parties.

NCSL updates its partisan composition data several times a year to accurately reflect legislative changes nationwide. To stay current on the makeup of the legislatures in 2025, see NCSL’s page State Partisan Composition.

Adam Kuckuk is a policy associate in NCSL’s Elections and Redistricting Program.