A bitter fight over partisan control of the Minnesota House of Representatives ended on Thursday as lawmakers announced a power-sharing deal in which a Republican will serve as speaker for the next two years.
Lawmakers agreed that Democrats and Republicans would jointly run committees in the chamber once a special election takes place next month. That election, for an unfilled House seat, is widely expected to leave the parties with an even number of seats in the House.
The arrangement ended a Democratic boycott of the legislative session, which began last month in St. Paul, and cleared the way for lawmakers to start crafting a state budget.
The dispute, which landed twice before the State Supreme Court, underscored the chaotic political landscape Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, returned home to face after spending part of last year campaigning to be vice president.
“This agreement upholds the will of the voters,” Representative Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the House, told reporters at the Capitol Thursday morning.
With 67 seats, Republicans currently have an advantage in the House over the Democrats, who have 66 seats.
One concession Democrats made in recent days was signing off on a new legislative committee that will be tasked with investigating fraud cases involving programs run by state agencies. The committee will be run by Republicans. Republican lawmakers have faulted the Walz administration for inadequate safeguards which, they say, enabled a series of multimillion-dollar fraud schemes in recent years.
“This is something House Republicans have taken very seriously,” said Representative Lisa Demuth, the top Republican in the House, who will serve as speaker. “This is a win for Minnesotans.”
The impasse in the state’s capital had been an abrupt shift, following two years of Democratic control of both legislative chambers as well as the governor’s office. During that two-year period, Democrats expanded abortion rights, legalized recreational marijuana and forced employers to provide paid medical and family leave. Democrats lost a slim majority in the House in last year’s election, while holding on to a one-seat majority in the Senate, which was not up for election.
Voters in November elected an even number of Democrats and Republicans in the Minnesota House, but within weeks, two elections that Democrats had won were called into question, leading to the fight over control.
In one case, a Democrat didn’t meet the eligibility requirements to run for the office, a judge determined. That seat, to represent a largely Democratic district, will be filled after a special election on March 11. The second contested seat involved a close race in which election officials determined that some 20 ballots were improperly discarded.
Republicans had signaled reluctance to swear in that lawmaker, Brad Tabke, but they agreed to do so as part of the agreement announced on Thursday.
Ms. Demuth will become the first Black person and the first Republican woman to serve as speaker of the Minnesota House. “Knowing I am making history on two fronts,” she said, is “an honor.”
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