By Clay Schuldt

The Journal

and Deb Gau

Marshall Independent

ST. PAUL — Minnesota Republicans didn’t get the support they were expecting this election season. But although the DFL now has a majority in both the state Senate and House of Representatives, Republican legislators in southwest Minnesota say they will keep working to serve their constituents.

“We’ve been in the minority before,” said Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls. He said he was still able to get work done.

Last week, voters in southwest Minnesota re-elected Republican legislators, including Dahms, in Senate District 15, and Reps. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent (15A) and Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska (15B).

But statewide, an anticipated “red wave” of Republican support didn’t happen. Democrats gained a single-seat majority in the state Senate, and retained a six-seat majority in the House of Representatives. In addition, Gov. Tim Walz won re-election, giving Democrats full control of the state government.

For the Democrats to keep a House majority by the same margins as before the election was “a significant surprise across the board,” said David Sturrock, professor of political science at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Having a majority in the Minnesota House and Senate means DFL lawmakers will have the ability to set the agenda in the next legislative session, Sturrock said. 

This is the eighth time Torkelson has been elected to the house. He first ran for the state house in 2008. With this seniority, Torkelson was appointed Assistant Minority Leader in the state house. Along with the Minority Leader, Torkelson will be participating in personnel decisions and committee assignments for the party and help lead executive board meetings.

Going into the next session, Torkelson believed the first piece of work will be determining what to do with the state’s surplus and passing a bonding bill. Legislators were unable to pass legislation on these issues before the deadline last session.

Torkelson said a supermajority was needed to pass a bonding bill. He believed his party could work with Democrats to get a bill passed. He said a bill proposed last session could be revamped and could hopefully be passed early in the session.

“There are a lot of good infrastructure needs in that bill,” Torkelson said. He specifically hoped the bill could address roads, water and wastewater infrastructure needs. He supported a bonding bill that focused on the basics that need to be fixed.

In addition to infrastructure, Torkelson believed crime would be a major topic of the session. 

“I hope we can get work done to support law enforcement,” he said and added that first responders also need support. Recruitment and staffing are a concern. He said there are small communities with ambulances but are struggling to find people to work on the crews.

He said there are similar worker shortages in nursing homes and group homes. Torkelson said part of the problem was compensation. He hoped the legislature could work to increase the pay of group home staff.

Dahms said the new Democratic majority would have an impact on legislative committees, and in some cases Republican legislators may need to find a Democratic chief author for a bill. However, there could still be challenges ahead for Senate Democrats, because they have a slimmer majority than Democrats in the House.

Swedzinski said that Democrats would likely set the agenda for the legislature in the upcoming session, but it remained to be seen what the details of that agenda might be.

“Sadly, the things they ran on weren’t much,” Swedzinski said.

A compromise agreement on the budget surplus was reached before the end of the last session to spend about $4 billion on tax relief and $4 billion on education and programs, but the session ended before it could be enacted. The agreement fell apart after the session. Swedzinski, R-Ghent, said with a Democratic majority, it was likely that more of the surplus will end up being spent.

The slim DFL majority in the Senate means Democrats won’t be able to pass a bonding bill by themselves.

“They will have to bring some Republicans over to get a bonding bill passed,” Sturrock said. “And that’s a healthy thing.”

Sturrock said another factor to watch for will be new House and Senate leadership. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, will remain Speaker of the House, and Rep. Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, will be the next House majority leader. Rep. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, was elected House miniority leader, and Torkelson, will be deputy minority leader.

“That could make a difference for southwest Minnesota,” Sturrock said of Torkelson’s new role.