Newly tied Minnesota House will test legislators' ability to work together

Republican control of the Minnesota House will come to an end Monday when a newly elected Democrat is sworn in, bringing the chamber to a rare 67-67 tie that will test the parties' ability to work together.

Everything will be subject to negotiation now, as 68 votes are needed to pass bills in the House. The party caucuses will have to put behind them any bitter feelings from a nearly monthlong power struggle and series of politically charged votes.

“It does provide an opportunity for cooperation,” said Steven Schier, a political scientist and Carleton College professor emeritus. “There is the potential for that, but there may be outside pressures that make it difficult to operate.”

The House DFL and GOP caucuses will ultimately have to work with each other, the DFL-controlled Senate and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to pass policy priorities and a two-year state budget. The Legislature’s adjournment deadline is May 19.

“Bipartisanship will work in the House if you get permission from the DFL Senate and the governor to proceed in that manner,” Schier said.

A power-sharing agreement will kick in after Democrat David Gottfried is sworn in to represent a Roseville-area district.

Under that pact, Republican Lisa Demuth will remain House speaker through 2026 while most legislative committees will be evenly divided and co-chaired by Democrats and Republicans. The exception is the newly formed House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, which Republicans will chair for two years with a 5-3 voting advantage.

The DFL and GOP co-chairs will take turns running committees, deciding their respective agendas. Expect a mix of partisan posturing and bipartisan work.

“With the rotating gavels, it does give the opportunity for each side to bring their priorities forward,” said Demuth, R-Cold Spring. “But when it comes right down to it, there’s an equal number of members on every committee, so in order to move something out, it’s going to have to be bipartisan.”

Republicans have been focused on searching for waste and fraud in state government programs. House Democrats say they’ll use their committee power to focus on economic affordability and “shine a bright light on the harm the Trump administration’s policies are having on the economy.”

“Part of what we do here at the State Capitol is politics, and part of it’s governing,” said House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park. “And I think both politics and governing will happen in the committees and on the floor.”

The power structure in the tied House will be decentralized. The evenly split committees must reach bipartisan agreements for bills to move to the floor. “The compromises will have been made before,” Hortman said.

“All 134 members of the House will be involved in conflict resolution,” Hortman said.

The top item of business is passing a two-year state budget. Legislators have a small projected surplus of $456 million for this coming budget cycle, but the longer-term outlook is for a nearly $6 billion deficit in the 2028-2029 biennium.

It remains to be seen whether legislators will seek to make cuts now or wait to see how the economy performs.

“We can’t keep running our state into a further deficit, so wise decisions have to be made,” Demuth said.

Hortman sounded less concerned, saying projections that look far into the future aren’t always reliable.

“If Lisa Demuth and I had to come to an agreement on cutting $6 billion, that would be hard, right? But that is not the period we’re budgeting for,” Hortman said. “... We may plan for it, but it may never happen.”

Hortman and Demuth have said they want to pass a budget on time and avoid a special session. After a divisive start to the legislative session, Demuth said she expects lawmakers in the newly tied House to settle in for “good bipartisan work.”

“We have to work for Minnesotans. That’s what they’re expecting us to do,” Demuth said.

Staff writer Briana Bierschbach contributed to this report.