Photo by Gian Lorenzo/Getty
MN Capitol Building
The Background
The Minnesota DFL pulled off a “trifecta” in November’s midterm election: It kept control of the house and governor’s seat and narrowly (like, by one seat) flipped the state senate. And, as supporters around Minnesota cheered, expectations for the new group instantly increased. Dealing with issues formerly stalled out because of partisan gridlock should be a slam dunk, right? Not exactly.
“When you see this change in composition to having a unified government, you’re going to raise expectations,” says Tim Lynch, an assistant professor of political science at the University of St. Thomas. “But it’s important to pay attention to what’s going on under the surface.”
The Makeup
Lynch points to the slender majority as a possible indicator of gridlock.
“If you think about what’s been going on in the U.S. Senate the past few years, we know Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema’s names for a reason,” he says. “A lot of the time, we think this is like team sports, but there are also individuals. And there are still legislators in the DFL from various parts of the state who have to respond to their own constituencies.”
Even though it’s difficult to say exactly what will happen with issues like codifying abortion rights, legalizing cannabis, and dealing with the remainder of the $9 billion budget surplus, Lynch says it’s likely Democrats will move them forward, but what that movement will look like is hard to predict.
The Newbies
How exactly did the state’s recent redistricting play into this?
“It was not a partisan gerrymander,” says Kathryn Pearson, an associate poli-sci professor at the University of Minnesota, saying that any difference along party lines was likely marginal. “The biggest difference it made was the sheer number of new members in the legislature,” she says—members who will want to make an impact on their state.
What that impact will be is yet to be decided, starting with this month’s legislative session. Stay tuned.
