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MN House in order: Power sharing launches legislature

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Published  February 6, 2025 7:21pm CST
Politics
FOX 9

Deal in Minnesota House ends stalemate

The Minnesota House met for the first time officially Thursday as the DFL and Republicans reach a power sharing agreement. FOX 9's Corin Hoggard has the latest.

The Brief

    • The Minnesota House officially met for the first time Thursday, three weeks after the first day of the legislative session.
    • A power sharing agreement makes Republican Lisa Demuth Speaker of the House for the entire two-year session. Republicans also get a two-year majority on a new Oversight Committee to look into fraud.
    • Democrats got Republicans to agree to seat Rep. Brad Tabke, who won a close race, but had a judge rule in his favor after some election mistakes cast doubt on the results. They also get shared power on committees if and when a 67-67 tie is restored after a special election in March.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Minnesota has a functional House. Republicans and Democrats reached a power sharing deal Wednesday night and they officially met Thursday afternoon for the first time this year.

Clear winners

One and one:

It's a compromise deal, but clear winners seem to be Republican Lisa Demuth and Democrat Brad Tabke.

Demuth is now Speaker of the House for two years.

Tabke officially keeps his seat which Republicans threatened to take from him based on election mistakes in a close race.

Doing the math

Speaker sticks:

On his ninth turn at the gavel, Steve Simon finally found a quorum in the Minnesota House.

Republicans cheered as the gavel passed to Demuth, who led the Republican team of negotiators that landed on a deal with Democrats Wednesday night.

"I will be the only speaker of the House in the state of Minnesota," said Speaker Demuth, (R-Cold Spring). "It will not be shared over the next two years. That is a yesterday development."

Demuth holding the speakership for the entire two-year session was a sticking point for the three weeks Democrats stayed away from the Capitol.

Give and take

No shenanigans:

Republicans conceded they’ll share committees equally if a March special election restores a 67-67 tie, with the exception of a fraud and oversight committee that’ll stay in Republican hands.

The likely co-chairs of the ways and means committee shared a so-called "no shenanigans" handshake, but at least initially the push to write a bipartisan budget will be tempestuous.

"They're very suspicious of us," said likely Minority Leader Melissa Hortman, (DFL-Brooklyn Park. "We're very suspicious of them. And the idea that folks would be unreasonable in budget discussions. But we do seem to share the principle that we need to get a budget done. And so I think all of our energy will be focused on that."

Making up for lost time

Making up lost time:

They’ll be getting a late start, but a few hundred bills are already in the hopper and committee hearings start next week.

"We have a lot of work to do in a very condensed amount of time and we're up for the challenge," said Speaker Demuth:

In fact, the first committee hearing will be the oversight committee hearing about fraud concerns on Monday morning.

PoliticsMinnesota