ST. PAUL, Minn. — Voters in a Minnesota House district at the center of a post-election chose Democrat David Gottfried on Tuesday in a race that will leave control of the House tied and end a short-lived Republican majority. The Democratic victory will force the two parties to work together to agree on a budget for the next two years.
The in heavily Democratic House District 40B in the northern St. Paul suburbs of Roseville and Shoreview was scheduled after a that Democratic state Rep.-elect Curtis Johnson failed to meet residency requirements. That in the House and led to the collapse of a power-sharing agreement between the two parties after Republicans decided to capitalize on their unexpected majority, prompting a three-week of the chamber.
Gottfried defeated Republican Paul Wikstrom, who also ran for the seat in 2024 and had challenged Johnson’s residency status in court.
The parties in February that assumed Democrats would win the special election and restore the 67-67 tie. Under the terms of the deal, Republican Lisa Demuth will remain House speaker for the next two years. Once Gottfried’s victory is sworn in, the two parties will have even strength on most committees, except for an oversight committee that Republicans will control to investigate fraud in government programs.
Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the Minnesota Senate. Given the tie in the House, where 68 votes are needed to pass most bills, some degree of bipartisan cooperation will be required to pass the big budget measures and get them to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz for his signature. Updated budget projections released last Thursday suggested difficult negotiations ahead. The projected surplus for the next two-year budget slipped to $456 million, while the projected deficit for the two years after that grew to $6 billion.
Gottfried’s district is solidly Democratic. The ineligible Johnson received 65% of the vote in November, compared to about 35% for Wikstrom. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried the district with 68% of the vote, far better than the 51% she received statewide in her national loss to President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
While Democrats had the “trifecta” of control over both chambers and the governor’s office in 2023 and 2024, returned the state to divided government, which has been the norm during most of the last three decades.
Ken Martin, a Minnesotan who chairs both the Democratic National Committee and the state party organization, congratulated Gottfried for what he called a “crucial” victory for the party.
Gottfried’s win comes on the heels of special election victories earlier this year in Virginia and Iowa, and it shows that Americans are already rejecting President Donald Trump, the DNC said in a statement.
“Since November’s election, Democrats continue to fight and win in communities across the country,” Martin said.
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