Star Tribune: DFL leaders: That was the most consequential legislature in generations

By Melissa Hortman and Erin Murphy

When the Minnesota Legislature adjourned on May 20, it completed the most productive two-year session since the Minnesota Miracle of the 1970s.

The values behind our work were simple: We believe that all Minnesotans — no matter where they live or what they look like — should have the opportunity to build better lives for themselves and their families.

House and Senate DFL majorities replaced gridlock and timidity with historic progress for Minnesotans on the issues they told us they care about most: good public schools, making health care more affordable and accessible, improving economic security for workers and families, protecting reproductive freedom, taking action on climate change, reducing gun violence and strengthening our democracy.

Minnesota's children and students deserve every chance to succeed. After years of GOP disinvestment, DFLers made historic investments in every level of education from child care to college. We helped family budgets and reduced student hunger through free breakfasts and lunch at school. After decades of underinvestment in higher education, we froze tuition at Minnesota State and made college free for families making less than $80,000 a year. In 2024, we increased funding for the READ Act to improve student achievement and literacy.

DFLers took steps to improve the affordability and accessibility of health care. Our budget includes a Prescription Drug Affordability Board to reduce drug costs, and caps co-pays for prescription drugs to treat diabetes, asthma and allergies at $25 for one month's supply. This year, we enacted significant medical debt reforms because Minnesotans struggling with illness should not also have to be saddled with unmanageable debt. A new law curbing "prior authorization" will keep insurance companies out of basic care decisions for cancer and mental health care, minimizing paperwork and delays in treatment.

Our priority has been to un-rig an economy that often seems tilted in favor of big corporations and the wealthiest among us. Democrats delivered solutions to improve economic security and build a fairer, more equitable economy. We passed paid family and medical leave, earned sick and safe time, and historic investments in infrastructure and housing affordability. A nation-leading Child Tax Credit is already working to reduce child poverty, and we took further steps to improve the credit this year.

We also banned hidden, nuisance "junk" fees and increased penalties for employers who misclassify employees to deny them protections and benefits. We banned noncompete clauses and required salary transparency, ending practices that disproportionately hurt women and people of color. And for the first time, a majority of Minnesota retirees no longer pay any state income taxes on their Social Security benefits.

While Republicans in Minnesota and across the country continue to pursue extreme abortion bans and attack IVF and contraceptives, DFLers defended reproductive freedom by enacting the Protect Reproductive Options Act and repealing unconstitutional, outdated, unjust and harmful statutes. We passed protections for doctors and patients who need access to the full range of reproductive health care options. This year, we continued to make progress by expanding insurance coverage for abortion and gender-affirming care.

Minnesotans deserve a healthy climate and a clean energy future. DFLers put our state on a pathway to 100% clean energy by 2040 with investments that will bring critical federal funding to our state. In 2024, we streamlined permitting on infrastructure projects to reach that ambitious goal.

After years of Republicans stalling efforts to address our country's gun violence epidemic, DFLers enacted criminal background checks and red flag laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands. We invested $300 million in new public safety aid for communities across the state. And this year, after the tragic and horrific killing of three first responders in Burnsville, DFL majorities increased penalties for straw purchases and banned binary triggers, like the one that made that shooter's gun doubly dangerous.

Minnesotans are rightfully outraged at attempts to undermine our democracy and our democratic institutions. We responded with the Democracy for the People Act, which enshrines automatic voter registration, pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, and a permanent mail-in absentee voter list, while prohibiting voter intimidation, harassment and deceptive practices intended to interfere with the vote. We restored the franchise to people reentering society after serving their time. And in 2024, we passed the Minnesota Voting Rights Act to further protect Minnesotans from voter suppression tactics.

The good work of the 2023-24 Legislature will benefit Minnesotans for generations to come. We also recognize that there is more to do to build a state that truly works for everyone. Despite the progress we all made together, we know that many of the challenges Minnesotans are facing can't be solved in a two-year legislative session. We're committed to continuing our collaboration with Minnesotans to prioritize the issues they value and ensure everyone has the opportunity to build the better life they deserve.

Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, is the speaker of the Minnesota House. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, is majority leader of the Minnesota Senate.

Minnesota House DFL Announces Record Fundraising Numbers

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota House DFL announced a record fundraising total for the first quarter of 2024. The campaign will report starting on-year with $774,416.76 raised in a single quarter and $2,827,693.15 total raised for the cycle. The campaign reports $1,676,916.59 cash on hand as the DFL prepares to run a robust, state-wide campaign to protect and expand the House majority in November. 

“Once again the House Caucus has delivered record-breaking fundraising numbers that mean DFLers will have the resources to compete in every part of the state as we work to protect and expand our majority,” said Speaker Melissa Hortman. “We know that Minnesotans are optimistic about the direction of our state, and we are grateful for their trust and support. They know that the stakes are high in this year's election and don’t want to risk a return to divided government and gridlock. They’re investing in Democrats so we can keep delivering the progress that Minnesotans are seeking. We intend to invest in races across the state to hold our majority in the 2024 election and keep working to ensure Minnesotans have high-quality public education, affordable health care, and economic security.”

“We don’t have a moment to lose to protect Minnesota’s progress made under the united DFL leadership," said Majority Leader Jamie Long. “As DFLers across the state hit the campaign trail, we are proud to announce historic fundraising numbers that we will be able to invest in key races across the state. Together we’ll keep building a Minnesota where everyone has the chance to succeed and build a better life for themselves and their families.” 

Minnesota Reformer: Free school meals overwhelmingly popular with voters, survey finds

By Christopher Ingraham

More than 70% of Minnesota voters — including majorities across every ideological and demographic category — say they approve of the Legislature’s decision last year to provide free school meals to all students, regardless of income.

Parents (85%), voters under age 34 (85%) and liberals (90%) were especially likely to support the policy. Conservatives (57%) and senior citizens (54%) were least likely to approve of the change.

The data come from the latest KSTP/SurveyUSA poll of Minnesota voters. The findings come on the heels of reports that the free school meals are proving more costly than lawmakers anticipated, due in large part to greater-than-expected demand for the program.

While Republican lawmakers have criticized the program as a giveaway to rich families, Gov. Tim Walz has remained a proud defender of it, telling MPR News in December that it’s “an investment I will defend all day.” Food shelf visits increased sharply in Minnesota over the past two years, but advocates are hopeful that increased school meal availability will put a dent in hunger going forward.

The KSTP survey also found wide margins of support for several other new policies passed last year, including legal marijuana (65%) and paid family leave funded by a new payroll tax (61%). 

But voters were also skeptical of taxes and spending. About 40% said the Legislature increased spending “too much” in 2023, compared to 11% who said it was “not enough” and 26% who characterized it as the “right amount.” That leaves 23% unsure and a potential target as both parties fight for control of the 134-member Minnesota House. 

More than 50% said increases in the gas tax and metro area sales tax were “too much,” compared to 31% saying it was either “not enough” or the “right amount.”

Some of the findings underscore how voters like receiving generous government services, but strongly dislike having to pay for those programs. That paradox is most on display in responses about the one-time tax rebates offered last year: 58% of respondents said the dollar amounts they received were “not enough,” compared to just 7% who said they were “too much.”

Republicans were especially likely to say both that the Legislature increased spending too much (62%), and that their Walz checks were too small (64%). While similar shares of Democrats and Independents said their rebates were too small, those groups were considerably less likely to say that the overall spending increase was too high.

Minnesota House DFL Announces Record Fundraising Numbers

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota House DFL today announced a record fundraising total for 2023. The campaign will report ending the year with $2,053,000 raised and $1,230,000 cash on hand — setting the stage for a strong campaign to protect and expand the House DFL Majority in 2024. The campaign beat its previous odd-year fundraising record by more than $353,000.

“Our record-breaking fundraising numbers mean that House DFLers will have the resources to compete in every part of the state as we work to protect and expand our majority,” said Speaker Melissa Hortman. “Minnesotans support the results of the historically-productive 2023 legislative session, and we are grateful for their trust and support. They know what's at stake in this year's election and they don’t want a return to divided government and gridlock. They’re supporting Democrats so we can keep moving the state forward. We intend to hold our majority in the 2024 election and keep working to ensure Minnesotans have high-quality public education, affordable health care, and economic security.”

“With the largest odd-year fundraising total in caucus history, it's clear that Minnesotans are responding positively to the work of House DFLers," said Majority Leader Jamie Long. “We're looking forward to the campaign ahead and the opportunity to continue sharing our bold, positive vision for the future of Minnesota — a Minnesota where everyone has the chance to succeed and build a better life for themselves and their families.” 

Intelligencer: Why Are Minnesota Democrats So Progressive?

By Eric Levitz

Last November, Democrats secured full control of Minnesota’s state government by the narrowest of margins. The party’s single-seat majority in the state senate hinged on a race that it won by 321 votes. Its majority in the state house, meanwhile, stood at only six.

Although Minnesota has long been a “blue” state, it has become more competitive in recent years as white non-college-educated voters throughout the Midwest drifted rightward. In 2016, Hillary Clinton carried the North Star State by less than two points.

Given these realities, one might have expected Minnesota governor Tim Walz to get only a small fraction of his agenda into law, much as Joe Biden’s sweeping American Jobs and Families Plans gave way to the more modest Inflation Reduction Act. After all, Minnesota Democrats owed their razor-thin majority in the state senate to lawmakers from historically Republican and rural parts of Minnesota.

As it happened, none of the party’s “majority makers” fancied themselves midwestern Manchins. To the contrary, they facilitated the most robustly progressive legislative session in their state’s modern history, a frenzy of reform so ambitious and comprehensive that it puts New York and California Democrats (and their large legislative majorities) to shame.

Over the last six months, Minnesota Democrats enshrined abortion rights, established paid family and medical leave, restored the voting rights of ex-felons, extended voting access, invested $1 billion into affordable housing, imposed background checks on private gun transfers, initiated a red-flag warning system that confiscates firearms from those judicially deemed a threat to themselves or others, legalized recreational marijuana, created a refuge program for trans people denied gender-affirming care in other states, mandated that utilities go carbon-free by 2040, provided a refundable tax credit (i.e., cash aid) to low-income households with children, prohibited non-compete clauses in labor contracts, barred employers from holding compulsory anti-union meetings, strengthened workplace protections for meatpacking and Amazon workers, empowered teachers unions to bargain over educator-to-student ratios, empaneled a statewide board to set minimum labor standards for nursing-home workers, directed $2.58 billion into improved infrastructure, made school breakfast and lunch free from all Minnesota K-through-12 students, and increased taxes on corporations and high earners, among other things.

This would constitute an exceptionally vast and progressive legislative session in the bluest states in the country. That Democrats managed to enact it in a swing-ish state with a gossamer-thin senate majority is extraordinary.

It’s therefore worth examining how Minnesota Democrats managed to pull this off. Here are three reasons why North Star State Democrats proved so prolific this year:

(1) As the Minnesota Democtratic coalition grew narrower, it became more uniformly liberal.

Minnesota Democrats are known as the DFL, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. But the party no longer boasts much support in the farm-heavy parts of its state. Ironically, this thinning of the DFL coalition may have actually expanded the scope of its agenda.

Last year, the party’s six-vote house majority was not sufficient to codify Minnesotans’ abortion rights. This was because the majority depended on four representatives from rural parts of the state whose relative social conservatism led them to insist on some restrictions to abortion access. But in November, three of those four representatives lost their seats. At the same time, Democrats managed to flip enough historically Republican suburban districts to compensate for these losses.

As a result, the Democratic house majority grew more demographically and geographically narrow, with its base of support increasingly concentrated in the Twin Cities and its suburbs. But this also had the effect of rendering it more uniformly liberal. In 2023, Democrats still had only a six-vote majority in the house. But now, that margin was sufficient to make progress on virtually every dimension of the progressive agenda, including measures on abortion, trans rights, and marijuana that the party’s socially conservative rural members had historically resisted.

Had the party’s moderate rural wing survived the Trump years intact, it is possible that it would have circumscribed its governing agenda through its influence over committee assignments and leadership elections.

None of this is to say Minnesota Democrats are better off with a smaller and more geographically concentrated base of support. In the long run, the Republican takeover of the DFL’s historic bastions in the Iron Range will make it difficult for Democrats to command trifectas in the state with any consistency. But in the 2023 legislative session specifically, a narrow coalition may have actually abetted a broader agenda.

(2) Democrats inherited a record-high budget surplus.

The unified Democratic government had the good fortune to take power at a time when Minnesota enjoyed a historic $17.5 billion budget surplus. This eased potential tensions within the Democrats’ new coalition: Although the party’s heightened support among affluent suburbanites facilitated progress on myriad social issues, its reliance on such voters also constrained its capacity to substantially raise taxes on upper-middle-class households.

The surplus enabled Democrats to increase the state budget by 40 percent without such tax hikes. Granted, the party did very slightly increase payroll taxes to finance its paid-leave benefits and sales taxes to fund housing and transit. But it paired these with a one-time tax rebate that cut the tax bills of the vast majority of Minnesota households.

In flush fiscal times, a coalition that united Minnesota’s relatively strong labor movement (with 17 percent of the state’s workers unionized as of 2020) with socially liberal suburbanites proved capable of advancing progressive goals across the full gamut of policy areas.

This said, moderates in the party did thwart an effort to establish a special minimum wage for rideshare drivers.

(3) The party knew that you (might) only govern once.

All this said, heightened suburban support and a budget surplus would have counted for little if Democrats had lacked the will to wield power aggressively. Passing Walz’s agenda still required lawmakers who had just barely won in GOP-friendly areas to get behind an agenda that their own party dubbed “transformational” (lawmakers worried about retaining swing voters’ support generally do not wish to be seen as “transforming” their state).

But the party’s leadership managed to cultivate a “you (might) only govern once” ethos, which stiffened swing-district senators’ spines. When Democrats last boasted full control of the state government in 2012, they chose to use their power carefully. As house majority leader Jamie Long told the Washington Post, “There were many things they decided not to do because they figured, ‘Well, we should win our reelections and then we’ll come back and do all those things next time.’” Then they lost power in 2014 and didn’t regain it for nearly a decade.

This time they chose not to take power for granted. “I’ve always said you don’t win elections to bank political capital,” Walz told the Post. “You win elections to burn the capital to improve lives.”

This outlook led the party to form a game plan for maximizing legislative progress from the moment it secured control of the state senate. It brought together the party’s various interest groups — among them unions, abortion-rights advocates, and environmental organizations — along with the most progressive and conservative lawmakers in their caucuses. House Speaker Melissa Hortman appointed a staunch liberal to one of the legislature’s tax committees and an Iron Range moderate to the other, and let them hash out fiscal compromises. Through such rapidly orchestrated internal deliberations, the party quickly crafted consensus reforms in a wide range of policy domains.

“It’s hard to get lawmakers across the state representing districts with differing needs to agree on a legislative agenda with no room for error,” said Daniel Squadron of the States Project, a Democratic group that marshaled unprecedented funds for key swing-district races in 2022. “But by planning with a holistic goal of delivering something for every Minnesotan, they made it happen.”

Minnesota Democrats hope that this vigorous approach to policymaking will prove to be a blueprint for electoral success. By delivering clear material benefits to the vast majority of Minnesota households while also fortifying the union movement and expanding voter access, Democrats hope to demonstrate that there is no big tradeoff between progressive governance and political pragmatism. And if the party manages to retain or expand its majorities in 2024, that should embolden future Democratic trifectas in purple states.

But it’s worth noting that the case for the “Minnesota model” does not hinge on such an outcome. As Walz suggested, the party did not choose to legislate aggressively because it believed that doing so would secure its grip on power so much as because its members knew that their grip was fragile. And though it will be fairly easy for Republicans to eventually erase a one-vote senate majority, it will be much harder for the GOP to repeal progressive legislation in a state where Democrats almost always control at least one branch of government. So when Democrats manage to secure full control of government, it’s best to move fast and fix things.

Thus, Democratic governments in states like Michigan would do well to emulate Minnesota’s example, no matter what happens in 2024. Liberals in deep-blue states like New York and California, meanwhile, should find their own causes for legislative urgency. One reason why Minnesota Democrats may have outstripped their more politically secure coastal compatriots is precisely that the latter are more comfortable procrastinating on key issues since their ongoing power is more or less assured. And yet if California Democrats don’t need to worry about losing the chance to make policy in two years, their political security does not make their constituents need affordable housing, income support, or labor protections any less urgently. Democrats don’t need to live every day like it’s their last. But they should probably govern like they live in Minnesota.

HuffPost: How Minnesota Democrats Passed A Raft of Progressive Legislation With A 1-Seat Majority

By Daniel Marans

President Joe Biden spent his first two years in office with unified control of the federal government, only to see Democrats’ bare-bones majorities in the U.S. House and Senate significantly limit his legislative agenda on everything from climate to gun control to protecting abortion rights.

Minnesota Democrats entered this year’s legislative session in a similar situation. Last fall, they won control of the state’s executive branch, House and Senate — a legislative “trifecta” — but with only a one-seat majority in the upper chamber. The results were much different: The party accomplished a generation’s worth of liberal reforms in just four months, vaulting the state to the forefront of progressive policymaking.

Minnesota now offers 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, the opportunity for any resident to buy into Medicaid, free public college tuition for low- and middle-income families, a new child tax credit for those families, free breakfast and lunch for all public school students, driver’s licenses for all residents regardless of their immigration status, and stronger protections for workers seeking to unionize.

Take a deep breath — there’s more coming.

Middle-class seniors will no longer have to pay state income taxes on Social Security benefits. A law immediately restoring the voting rights of felons who have completed their prison sentences expanded the franchise to 55,000 more people. Minnesotans serving life behind bars for crimes they committed as minors are now eligible for supervised release 15 years into their sentence. Suspending gun permits for people experiencing a mental health crisis got easier. Recreational marijuana is legal. A new state law protects abortion rights. A “trans refuge” law shields transgender children who travel to Minnesota for medical transitions from legal repercussions in their home states. And Minnesota has set a goal of moving to 100% carbon-free energy by 2040.

The no-holds-barred progressive lawmaking spree was even enough to get a Twitter shoutout from former President Barack Obama, who called it a “reminder that elections have consequences.”

Leaders of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, as the state’s Democratic Party is known, have taken to calling the flurry of legislative activity the “Minnesota Miracle 2.0.” Originally, “Minnesota Miracle” was a nickname given to reforms enacted in the early 1970s by then-Gov. Wendell “Wendy” Anderson (DFL) and liberal Republicans in the Legislature, which increased funding for public schools by raising state income taxes and reducing the education system’s reliance on regressive property taxes.

That first Minnesota Miracle stemmed from “the belief that getting a healthy, well-educated population with a safety net when people fall on tough times is not only morally the right thing to do, it’s economically the right thing to do,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) told HuffPost. “We’re doubling down on that.”

He added, “We’re an island of decency up here,” referring to more conservative neighboring states like North Dakota.

There are a number of factors that enabled the DFL to press its advantage in such short order. Regrets over the caution exercised during the previous period of a Democratic legislative trifecta in Minnesota, and anxiety over the rightward shift of Republican-led states, fueled a sense of urgency.

The DFL is more ideologically uniform than it once was. A $17.5 billion budget surplus gave the party room to run. Walz, House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic kept their legislators in line. And the campaign infrastructure that carried the DFL to power, and is working hard to keep them there, is among the country’s most sophisticated.

“To not lose a single state senator on all of these major pieces of Democratic legislation — that’s either an incredible job done by Walz and the party leaders in the Legislature keeping everybody in check or getting things in the bill that they needed, or this is a lot of people who think alike and there’s not a lot of dissenting voices in the caucus to begin with,” said Eric Ostermeier, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, where he runs a nonpartisan data and analysis site called Smart Politics. “I suspect it’s a little bit of both.”

Meanwhile, state Republicans are hoping to make Democrats pay at the polls in 2024, when they have the chance to retake the state House.

Walz has effectively welcomed whatever political consequences will come, writing on Twitter, “You don’t win elections to bank political capital – you win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.”

But Walz will retain his veto power until at least 2026, when his second term expires; barring any unforeseen events, the state Senate is set to remain in Democratic hands until then as well. It’s also unclear whether Republicans want to be on record trying to overturn popular aspects of the Democratic agenda.

“There are certainly things they did that people will really like,” acknowledged former state Senate GOP leader Amy Koch, citing the free school meals and investment in early childhood education.

From Disarray To Dominance

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s present moment of triumph began in 2010, which was a relative low point for the party. Mark Dayton, a liberal and department store heir, had won the governorship by a hair, sparing the DFL the wipeout fate of Democrats in many other states.

But the party had lost control of both state legislative chambers and a U.S. House seat it had held for decades in northeastern Minnesota’s Iron Range region. Dayton asked his campaign manager, Ken Martin, to run for chair of the state party. A conversation with Alida Rockefeller Messinger, Dayton’s ex-wife and a major liberal philanthropist, helped seal the deal.

“Democrats were demoralized,” Martin recalled. “The state party was broke and near bankruptcy.”

Martin, a veteran Democratic operative, is now in his seventh two-year term heading the DFL, making him the longest-serving DFL chair in state history. He is widely credited with building the infrastructure that propelled Minnesota Democrats to their current level of dominance. The most recent time that a Republican won a statewide office in Minnesota was in 2006, when then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty secured a second term. Minnesota trails only California, Connecticut and New York in terms of consecutive elections for statewide offices in which Democrats have swept all contested seats, according to numbers crunched by Ostermeier.

The keys to Martin’s success? Long before the 2016 and 2018 elections sped up the state’s partisan demographic realignment, Martin saw that the battle for future control of the state would take place in the Twin Cities’ mostly middle-class and affluent suburbs. He made sure to invest in grassroots organizing and candidate recruitment in onetime Republican strongholds like Plymouth and Stillwater.

“As Wayne Gretzky, the great hockey player, once said, ‘You have to skate to where the puck will be, not where the puck is,’” Martin said, referencing a sport that is very popular in Minnesota.

None of that would have been possible if Martin wasn’t a prodigious fundraiser, bringing in $37 million for the party to spend on state and federal races in the 2022 midterm cycle alone. Martin marshals that money to provide services for individual candidates that they might not otherwise be able to afford, including opposition research and field organizing. (The latter is less important for the DFL’s Senate and House caucuses, which run their own ambitious field programs.)

Martin’s “oppo” handiwork, and a robust DFL press operation that knows how to make it stick, were apparent in pivotal contests in 2022. In a race for an open seat in rural Moorhead that Democrats held onto, the DFL unearthed court documents from Republican Dan Bohmer’s divorce in which his former wife testified that Bohmer had called her vile things, including a slur against women.

In Attorney General Keith Ellison’s contentious race for reelection, the DFL found the paper trail of Republican challenger Jim Schultz’s history of activism in the anti-abortion movement. The party also filed a complaint against Schultz’s campaign for allegedly violating campaign finance laws, prompting an official investigation that ultimately cleared Schultz of the main charges months after he lost his election.

“The role of the state party is to take the low road, so our candidates can take the high road,” Martin said.

Republicans have a grudging admiration of Martin’s work. “I’ve said, ‘Ken, can you get a real freakin’ job so you can give us a real chance?’” GOP strategist Patrick Connolly told HuffPost.

Koch had a similarly bittersweet appraisal. “He does keep a steady hand at the rudder, damn it!” she said. “I hope we can find someone like that.”

State parties have long been an afterthought for many Democrats — not least in blue states, where they sometimes become extensions of a governor’s patronage operation.

But the centrality of Martin’s party operation has become a model for neighboring states like Wisconsin, where Democrats hope to replicate his success. Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler, who led his party to victory in a critical state Supreme Court race in April, told HuffPost that he and his staff met with Martin at the DFL’s headquarters shortly after taking office in 2019 to soak in as much information as possible.

Martin’s “vision has guided my work ever since,” Wikler said in a statement.

Even Martin concedes, however, that he is heir to an illustrious Minnesota tradition of progressive organizing.

Before Martin’s tenure as chair, the family of the late progressive Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a tragic plane crash in 2002, created Camp Wellstone, an organizing bootcamp for DFL candidates, activists and operatives. Walz credits the program, which is now run entirely by the DFL, for preparing him for his successful 2006 U.S. congressional run at a time when he was a high school teacher and football coach without any political experience. His instructor at Camp Wellstone was then-school board member Peggy Flanagan, who is now his lieutenant governor.

“The credit is to a long progressive history and an infrastructure that understands that … it’s not just about good ideas, it’s about organization and execution,” he said.

Holding The Line

When Walz, Hortman and Dziedzic convened after the November 2022 election, they were in complete agreement that they would move swiftly to pass as much transformative legislation as possible.

Both Hortman and Dziedzic had been in the Legislature during the previous Democratic trifecta in 2013 to 2014. Dayton, then the governor, and the DFL majorities made a number of progressive strides, including legalizing same-sex marriage, using Affordable Care Act funds to expand Medicaid, guaranteeing a free full day of kindergarten, and raising taxes on higher earners to fund their priorities.

But Dayton and his colleagues held back for fear of alienating the electorate ahead of the 2014 elections, Hortman recalled. Priorities like a minimum wage increase got watered down or left by the wayside. Progressives were disappointed. Four decades after a 1973 Time magazine cover featuring Anderson, the governor, dubbed Minnesota “A State That Works,” a liberal specialist in Minnesota’s suite of 1970s reforms lamented that the moniker might “not fit Minnesota as comfortably as it once did.”

Despite the DFL’s caution, the party lost its majority in the state House in 2014, amid one of the worst midterms in the centurieslong history of the Democratic Party. Many analysts characterized the outcome as another midterm backlash to Obama, made worse by the then-president’s disinterest in investing in national Democratic Party infrastructure.

“We lost our trifecta, but it wasn’t at all because of what we did during the trifecta,” Hortman said.

To Hortman, and her colleagues, the lesson was clear: “We will worry about the next election when the next election comes around.” In the meantime, they planned to make up for time lost during periods of divided government with what Hortman called the “#LFG session” — an acronym for “let’s fucking go.”

The state’s flush coffers, bolstered by Biden’s COVID-19 relief bill and partisan gridlock that prevented more spending in the previous session, gave the DFL more leeway to fund its priorities.

But keeping caucus discipline in the House, where the DFL has a six-seat majority, left little room for error.

And the math in the state Senate, where the DFL could not afford to lose a single Democrat on party-line votes, was downright perilous.

Dziedzic did her best to accommodate the concerns of members in swing seats, especially those of the four “majority-makers.” That group includes state Sen. Heather Gustafson, the sole Democrat to flip a Republican-held seat, as well as state Sens. Rob Kupec, Grant Hauschild and Judy Seeberger, who won in Democratic-held open seats outside of the Twin Cities metropolitan area that had been shifting to the right.

Numerous intraparty compromises emerged from discussions within the DFL Senate caucus. A public safety bill included additional money to hire police officers in rural communities that want it, but also had funding for mental health emergency services and treatment not tied to the police. In an effort to appease Hauschild and other rural lawmakers, language in the legislation closing loopholes in the state’s background check system for gun purchases clarified that the state would not be assembling a centralized registry of gun ownership.

And to satisfy concerns raised by Gustafson, a suburban school teacher who unseated a Republican with an affinity for a racist and misogynistic right-wing manifesto, the bill legalizing cannabis made it easier for towns to contact local law enforcement about marijuana dispensaries that violate the law.

“We worked really hard to make sure everybody got heard,” recalled Gustafson, who praised Dziedzic’s skills as a consensus builder.

Passing the state’s new paid family and medical leave program was the most difficult lift. The program provides up to 12 weeks of partial wage replacement for a single medical or family event, and a combined maximum of 20 weeks per year.

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce came out squarely against the law, objecting to a 0.7% tax to fund the program that would be split between employers and employees.

Dziedzic and her colleagues ended up adding clauses designed to lighten the burden of small businesses, including by reducing the amount that businesses with fewer than 30 workers have to pay into the program.

Grassroots progressive groups, like the interfaith coalition Isaiah, also played a critical role in demonstrating to swing-seat senators that significant local constituencies supported the bill.

State senators faced a “lot of real-world pressure” to oppose the paid family and medical leave bill, said Doran Schrantz, the executive director of Isaiah, whose political arm is called Faith in Minnesota. “If there was not a counter-pressure that was equally strong, those become very hard votes for those senators.”

The legislative session became that much more challenging when Dziedzic announced in March that she had cervical cancer. She missed weeks of in-person working to undergo surgery and other treatment, but ignored her doctors’ insistence that she take more time off. She participated in a number of critical video calls with Walz and Hortman while receiving chemotherapy.

Dziedzic credits the experience with adding to her perspective. She said that a receptionist who was next to her in the hospital needed a doctor’s note to return to her job and had suffered financially from the lost work time.

“It did solidify for me why we need paid family and medical leave,” she said.

Of course, the DFL’s expansion in the suburbs and contraction in socially conservative rural areas has made it a more ideologically homogeneous party than in the past. There is no equivalent, for example, of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in the Minnesota state Senate’s DFL caucus.

And the same partisan polarization that has limited the Minnesota GOP’s ability to appeal to moderate voters has increased the likelihood that any DFL state senator who bucks their party on a key priority will face a primary challenge. The stakes of party approval in Minnesota are also higher than in many other states, because both the DFL and the Minnesota Republican Party bestow official endorsements on candidates before primary elections, even when those contests are competitive.

For those reasons, Ostermeier said, “Voting against some of these policies isn’t necessarily going to ensure” Democrats’ reelection in swing seats.

Whither The GOP In A Multiracial Social Democracy?

Tom Berg, who was a DFL state representative in the 1970s and authored a 2012 book about the period called “Minnesota’s Miracle,” has registered an objection to the term “Minnesota Miracle 2.0” on technical grounds. The 1971 education funding reform was, he notes, “miraculous,” in part because it was the product of bipartisan collaboration between Anderson and a state Legislature controlled by Republicans (though prior to 1973, Minnesota legislative factions were nonpartisan and known as “liberal” or “conservative”). The DFL’s subsequent takeover of the state Legislature in the 1972 elections resulted in a generational shift and a more comprehensively liberal set of policy changes.

Berg also points out that while he and his colleagues addressed a narrow component of fiscal policy in 1971, “this session, the [DFL] did an awful lot on all fronts,” he said approvingly. “It is a truly major deal.”

Other progressives highlight another element of the “Minnesota Miracle 2.0” that is an improvement on its namesake: Although the DFL began diversifying in the 1970s, the coalition that assembled the current reforms contains far more women and nonwhite people than the state’s old liberal guard ever did.

Women now make up a majority of the DFL’s state Senate caucus. And the DFL counts 10 nonwhite senators among its 34 members, including the first three Black women senators in state history.

“A lot of the backlash politics [in Minnesota] are about race,” Schrantz said. “The fact that we could get to a place in 2023 where racial justice and equity were part of the lens of governing is a significant pivot point. So it was maybe a real miracle, as opposed to the one that happened in the ’70s.”

Minnesota Republicans have grown more diverse as well. For example, state House GOP leader Lisa Demuth is Black, making her the first Black leader of any of the state’s legislative caucuses.

Other aspects of the party’s makeup in the Legislature are less representative of the state’s diversity. Of the Minnesota Senate’s 33 Republicans, only three are women.

The demographic reality in the state Capitol corresponds to a political reality among Minnesota women. In 2022, public anger over the U.S. Supreme Court decision undoing a federal right to abortion played a major role in propelling women in the state toward Democrats, helping the party overcome polling that failed to predict the DFL’s takeover of the Legislature.

There has been a “complete lack of discussion and an agenda that focuses on women” among Minnesota Republicans, Koch said.

In addition, the state’s Republican Party has struggled to emerge from the shadow of former President Donald Trump, who lost the state by a surprisingly narrow margin in 2016 but accelerated the exodus of suburban voters from the state GOP.

Scott Jensen’s victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2022 spoke to Trump’s influence over the GOP base. Jensen, an anti-abortion physician who questioned the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and would not rule out the baseless idea that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, lost to Walz by nearly eight percentage points in November, contributing to what many Republicans believe was the party’s poor down-ballot performance.

In an interview with HuffPost, Demuth declined to comment on Trump, Jensen, or the question of whether the hard right is hurting Republicans at the ballot box. She also refused to commit to votes repealing key parts of the Democrats’ agenda this session.

Instead, Demuth claimed credit for ensuring that the largely DFL-drafted state budget included significant new funding for nursing homes, and for a losing effort to means-test free school meals that Republicans believe would have made the program more financially sustainable. She also vowed to fight for the full exemption of Social Security benefits from state income taxes, and the reduction or elimination of several tax increases from Democrats, including the payroll tax to fund paid family and medical leave.

Most of all, Demuth plans to pitch moderate Democrats and independents on the opportunity to restore “balance” and place a check on Walz’s taxation and spending agenda.

“That voice of almost 48% of Minnesotans, because our margins are so slim — it would bring their voice back into play and be able to stop some of the most concerning things, and bring balance back to state government in Minnesota,” she said. “That’s something that is sorely lacking.”

The New York Times: In a Contentious Lawmaking Season, Red States Got Redder and Blue Ones Bluer

By Mitch Smith

America’s state capitals are as polarized as they have been in decades, with lawmakers imposing unflinchingly conservative or liberal agendas this year, even in politically diverse places.

The 2022 election brought single-party control of the governor’s office and legislature to 39 states, the most in at least three decades.

Many of the 22 Republican-led states pushed new curbs on abortion, sweeping restrictions on gender transitions for youths and laws limiting discussion about sexuality in school classrooms. Democrats, who have full control in 17 states, passed new gun control measures, set limits on carbon emissions, and created safe havens for abortion and medical care for transgender people.

The result was that the legislative season, which has ended in much of the country, left an even wider divide between Republican and Democratic states on the country’s thorniest social issues. In some Republican states, lawmakers also took aim at the powers of Democratic officeholders or sought to limit local control in liberal-leaning cities.

“We’ve always known that California was progressive, Texas was conservative, but it now feels like almost every state is kind of falling into one of those categories,” said Tim Storey, the chief executive of the National Conference of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan group.

Some of the states that pursued ambitious partisan agendas had long been single-party strongholds. In Washington, where Democrats have had full control of state government for 14 of the last 19 years, lawmakers banned the sale of AR-15-style weapons and enshrined protections for abortion and transgender medical care in law. In North Dakota, where Republicans have led the government since 1995, officials banned transition care for minors, outlawed abortion and barred materials deemed to be sexually explicit from the children’s section of libraries.

But even in states with recent histories as political battlegrounds, lawmakers pushed hard this year to the left or right, potentially leaving a significant segment of residents alienated.

In Florida, which voted twice for Barack Obama but has since swung decisively toward Republicans, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed laws restricting abortion, banning transgender medical care for minors, loosening the requirements to impose the death penalty and allowing concealed guns to be carried without a permit. In Minnesota, where Democrats flipped a legislative chamber last year to narrowly take full control of the statehouse, Gov. Tim Walz signed bills codifying abortion rights, legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding voting rights for felons, a spree of liberal wins that drew the attention of Mr. Obama.

“If you need a reminder that elections have consequences,” the former president said on Twitter, “check out what’s happening in Minnesota.”

Minnesota Republicans did not need reminding. In the course of just a few months, they had watched from the sidelines as their state became a laboratory of progressive policymaking, even though hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans vote Republican.

“The real travesty is, that’s nearly 50 percent of the state that we represent,” said Mark Johnson, the Republican leader in the Minnesota Senate, “and so it’s constituents across the state that had little or no voice.”

State Representative Tony McCombie, the House leader of the Republican minority in Illinois, where Democrats are in their fifth consecutive year of single-party control, said majority parties that lurch too far in one direction risk long-term political peril.

“States that do this on the right or the left — it’s going to blow up, the pendulum will swing the other way,” Ms. McCombie said.

In Iowa, it was Republicans pressing the advantage conferred by their trifecta — control of the governorship and both legislative chambers — and continuing the transformation of their former swing state into a bastion of conservatism. Gov. Kim Reynolds signed bills passed by her fellow Republicans that loosened child labor rules and allowed families to put taxpayer money toward private-school tuition. Her state was also one of at least 16 this year that banned or significantly limited gender transition treatments for minors.

“Americans are taking notice as states around the country are looking to Iowa as a beacon for freedom and opportunity,” Ms. Reynolds said in a statement last month in which she called the legislative session “historic.”

On Thursday, Ms. Reynolds signed some of the last bills of the session into law, including a measure limiting the authority of the state auditor to access personal information and to take state agencies to court when performing investigations, drawing adamant objections from Democrats. The auditor, Rob Sand, happens to be the only Iowa Democrat still holding a statewide office.

Mr. Sand framed the legislation as partisan overreach that could impede his ability to do his job. And he described a broader shift, in Iowa and nationally, away from listening to the minority party that “shows us that the system that we’re running right now doesn’t work anymore.” A spokesman for the governor did not respond to an interview request.

Republicans in several states wielded their power in ways that silenced or reduced the power of elected Democrats. In Mississippi, Republicans imposed a state-controlled police force and a second court system within the boundaries of Jackson, the largely Black and Democratic capital city. In Texas, Republicans passed a bill that would expand state oversight of elections in the county that includes Houston. In Tennessee, Republicans expelled two Democratic legislators who protested on the House floor. And in Montana, a Democratic lawmaker was barred from the House floor after speaking against a bill limiting transgender rights.

Decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court last year added urgency, and often acrimony, to the lawmaking season.

After the court said Americans have the right to carry guns outside their home, Democrats passed new laws this year seeking to limit access to firearms, while gun rights supporters filed lawsuits challenging restrictions and Republicans passed laws expanding gun access. On abortion, an issue the court returned to the states, Republicans moved to severely restrict or ban access in several states, including Florida, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina and Wyoming, despite intraparty fights about how far to go. Democrats sought to strengthen abortion protections in many of their states.

Democrats entered this year with full power in four new states — Maryland and Massachusetts, where the governorship flipped, and Michigan and Minnesota, where legislative control shifted — and more states under their control than at any point since 2009. After Republicans spent more than a decade consolidating state-level power and passing sweeping new laws, Democrats saw this session as an opportunity to reverse recent history, with slightly more Americans now living in states under their control than in those where Republicans are in charge.

“I’ve been working my entire life to have an opportunity like this,” said Melissa Hortman, the speaker of the Minnesota House. “I mean, it was a golden moment this year to have the trifecta and to have a surplus and to have bills and authors that were ready to go.”

On a single day this session in Michigan, where Democrats won full control for the first time since the 1980s, lawmakers advanced bills to codify L.G.B.T.Q. rights, create a red-flag gun law and repeal a so-called right-to-work law loathed by labor unions.

“There were a lot of things that we knew exactly what we wanted to do, and we knew what those policies looked like,” said Winnie Brinks, the majority leader in the Michigan Senate. But while she expressed no regrets about acting quickly, Ms. Brinks acknowledged that doing so “was not exactly the most beneficial in terms of establishing really good working relationships” with Republicans.

Across the country, some topics resonated repeatedly across partisan lines, including economic development and mental health. And with the economy relatively stable and some federal pandemic relief funds still unspent, many states had money available to create new programs, pass tax cuts or send checks to residents. California, with a projected budget deficit in the tens of billions of dollars, was a notable exception.

Though the session was defined by the majority party scoring policy wins, there were moments when minority lawmakers made their presence known. In Oregon, the State Senate came to a standstill after Republicans fled the capitol, denying the majority Democrats a quorum and the ability to pass their agenda. And in Missouri and Nebraska, filibusters by Democrats ate up precious legislative time and helped to extract limited concessions from Republicans on bills restricting transgender rights.

There were also moments of intraparty disagreement, including in New York, where some legislative Democrats deemed a judicial nominee put forth by the Democratic governor to be too conservative, and in Texas, where Republicans diverged on whether to impeach the state’s Republican attorney general.

In Colorado, a former swing state where Democrats have steadily built power in recent years, lawmakers raised the minimum age to buy a gun, required gender-neutral bathrooms in new public buildings and passed a first-of-its-kind law making it easier for farmers to repair their own equipment instead of relying on manufacturers. But Democrats diverged on a measure that would have banned certain high-powered guns, dooming that bill.

“We’re not in a world where the Democrats all line up and vote the way the party is telling them to,” said Julie McCluskie, the Democratic speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives.

As polarized as the nation’s legislative season was this year, the next one has the potential to be even more lopsided. Though most states will not hold statewide elections again until 2024, a handful of races this November give Republicans an opening to claim up to three more trifectas.

Democrats are defending governorships in Kentucky and Louisiana, both states that vote reliably Republican in presidential races. And Republicans need to flip only a few seats to win a Senate majority in Virginia, a state where Democrats lost control of the House and governor’s mansion in recent years.

Public Notice: Minnesota Democrats’ historic legislative session

By Lisa Needham

At a time when national Democrats are thwarted by divided government, Minnesota Democrats have shown that when Democrats hold the state legislature and governorship, they can really make an impact — and quickly.

Coming on the heels of a 2022 election cycle where Republicans lost control of the state Senate by a single seat, the 2023 Minnesota legislative session was a masterclass in what Democrats can do when they have a trifecta, however narrow or fleeting. With a six-vote majority in the House and the slimmest possible majority in the Senate, Democrats held firm, passing bill after bill and enacting a to-do list that will help a lot of people. 

The state’s Democratic majority didn’t just succeed because they had a trifecta. It’s also because they set aside the urge to engage in bipartisanship with the bad actors of the Minnesota GOP, who thought Democrats’ one-vote majority was fragile and would require them to obtain bipartisan support to pass key legislation.

Minnesota Republicans regularly complained about not being allowed to influence or undermine Democratic goals and made absurd arguments that Dems were obliged to get GOP votes despite having the majority. Democrats didn’t succumb to this notion. Instead, they moved briskly through their proposed legislation and racked up progressive wins.

A rundown of everything Minnesota Dems accomplished

After abortion access was shattered in much of the country following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Minnesota Democrats immediately got to work to strengthen access in the state. Indeed, by January 31, 2023, less than a month into the legislative session, Gov. Tim Walz had already signed a bill, the Protect Reproductive Options Act, which protects not just abortion but birth control, family planning, fertility treatments, and more.

Democrats didn’t stop there. The omnibus health and human services bill also repealed restrictions on abortion, such as a requirement that doctors read a set of anti-abortion propaganda talking points to patients and a 24-hour waiting period.

Similarly, as waves of anti-trans bills sweep other states, Minnesota Democrats fought back. Republicans proposed a raft of bills designed to harm transgender people, including criminalizing providing gender-affirming healthcare for minors, but all of those died in committees. In contrast, Democrats passed the trans refuge bill. That bill blocks Minnesota state courts and officials from complying with subpoenas, extraditions, or arrests from other states seeking to punish people who travel here for gender-affirming care.

In his State of the State speech, Walz said, “They want to put bullies in charge of your health care. We want to put you in charge of your health care and put bullies in their place.”

All across the nation, conservatives were predictably outraged, claiming the Minnesota trans refugee bill would strip custody from parents, with one group issuing a “travel advisory” warning anti-trans parents not to travel to the state. 

There’s more. Starting in 2026, the newly-passed family and medical leave law gives Minnesotans up to 12 weeks off per year with partial pay after the birth of a child or to care for a sick family member. The law also covers up to 12 weeks for workers to get over their own major illnesses. However, employees will also see some expanded relief earlier, on January 1, 2024, when the earned sick and safe time law kicks in. That law requires that employees earn one hour of sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year. The law covers temporary and part-time workers as well. President Joe Biden had proposed a national sick leave plan, but that ran into the buzzsaw of the Senate. 

The state also became the fourth in the nation to enact universal school lunches, providing free breakfast and lunch to all K-12 students. Meanwhile, Republican state Sen. Steve Drazkowski declared he “ha[d] yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is hungry.”

That is, of course, wildly untrue. Minnesotans visited food shelves over 5 million times in 2022, a jump of nearly 2 million since 2021. Roughly one of every eleven children is food insecure and doesn’t have consistent access to nutritious food. Passing universal school lunches makes a real day-to-day difference in Minnesota's children's lives.

At the higher education level, the Democrats also passed a bill that makes college free for families that earn under $80,000 per year. For those students, there will be no tuition costs or associated fees at any of the state’s public colleges, universities, and tribal colleges. Republicans complained, with one confusingly insisting that this would increase student debt, but Democrats persevered, and now around 15,000 students will reap the law's benefits. 

They also tackled gun reform, passing two laws designed to reduce access to guns. One law expanded background checks to cover private transfers between individuals, not just at gun shows. The other is a red flag law, where guns could be temporarily removed from people who are an imminent danger to themselves or others. Conservative elected officials like state Sen. Justin Eichorn trotted out the same tired lines as always, threatening that county sheriffs will refuse to follow the red flag law and saying, “Today it’s your guns, tomorrow it’s your Zamboni or your gas stove or whatever.” When signing the bill, Walz — who had an A rating from the NRA when he was in Congress — refused to be baited into that argument and said he would not “allow extremists to define what responsible gun ownership looks like.”

Minnesota also became the 23rd state to legalize recreational marijuana, and the bill contained several other provisions to ensure social equity and safety. Misdemeanor marijuana convictions will be automatically expunged, and preferential license treatment will be given to people from lower income areas disproportionately impacted by marijuana criminalization and people who have past marijuana convictions. Minnesota also legalized the possession of drug paraphernalia, which allows people to have syringes and fentanyl test strips and allows community groups to distribute clean needles. 

One Senate seat can make all the difference

To be fair, state Republicans did join the Democrats in voting for a bill that commits $240 million to removing and replacing lead water pipes. The move also unlocks millions of dollars of federal infrastructural funding to improve drinking water. Every state House member voted for the bill, and in the state Senate, only two Republicans refused to support it. Lead is extremely harmful to young children, as it can delay their development, create learning and behavioral issues, and damage kidneys and the nervous system. That bipartisan moment was pretty fleeting, though. Most of the big legislation passed by the state Democrats was passed on a party-line vote, including the omnibus health and human services bill, paid family and medical leave, gun safety, and gender-affirming care. 

What nearly all of these things have in common is that they improve the lives not just of individuals but of the families of the state — particularly children. With family and medical leave, parents can take time to care for their kids without going broke or losing their job. With free breakfasts and lunches, children can better thrive at school, setting them on a better path forward. With free tuition, more families will see their children go to college. With lead pipe abatement, more children will be safe from the harmful effects of early-life exposure to lead. With the trans refuge bill, families from other states can seek vital care for their children without the threat of criminal penalties in other states. 

Minnesota progressives understand that, as the late Sen. Paul Wellstone said, “We all do better when we all do better.” By enacting popular progressive laws that help everyone, the impact of this 2023 session will be felt for decades to come. 

CBS Minnesota: “Elections have consequences”: Obama praises MN’s 2023 session accomplishments

By WCCO Staff

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Former President Barack Obama is putting the Minnesota Legislature's 2023 session in the national spotlight, saying it's a reminder that "elections have consequences."

Obama posted a thread on Twitter Friday morning, recapping the many DFL-backed initiatives that were signed into law over the course of just a few months.

"Earlier this year, Democrats took control of the State Senate by one seat after winning a race by just 321 votes. It gave Democrats control of both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's mansion," Obama said. "Since then, Minnesota has made progress on a whole host of issues – from protecting abortion rights and new gun safety measures to expanding access to the ballot and reducing child poverty. These laws will make a real difference in the lives of Minnesotans."

Obama added, "It's a reminder that, while the pace of change can often be slow, a small group of people can still help us take a giant leap forward – but only if we vote."

Democrats in Minnesota managed to check off all of the 30 biggest items on their ambitious agenda before the session adjourned Monday night. The accomplishments include a $3 billion tax cut bill aimed mostly at families with children that's partly offset by higher sales and other taxes to support transportation and housing. Paid family and medical leave will make it easier for Minnesotans to take time off to care for loved ones or their own health, but employers will have to pay.

State aid for public schools will be indexed to keep pace with inflation. Lawmakers enacted extensive new environmental protections. Recreational marijuana will start becoming legal for adults on Aug. 1. And Democrats moved quickly to lock in protections for abortion rights, as well as additional protections for the LGBTQ+ community, with the intention of making Minnesota a refuge state for those seeking gender-confirming procedures.

The 2023 Legislature was also the most diverse ever, and it was reflected in the Democratic agenda. The People of Color and Indigenous Caucus hopes to use 2024 to build on efforts to make Minnesota a more inclusive and just state, and make further investments in Black and brown communities.

Several laws passed this session with a focus on helping people of color. They included driver's licenses for all regardless of immigration status, an ethnic studies curriculum for schools, protecting workers in meatpacking plants and warehouses, and expunging records for marijuana convictions.

Statement from Speaker Hortman and Majority Leader Long on the end of the 2023 Legislative Session

St. Paul, Minnesota — Tonight, the Minnesota House of Representatives adjourned the 2023 Legislative Session after completing its work on the state’s new two-year state budget. Speaker Melissa Hortman and Majority Leader Jamie Long released the following statements:

Speaker Hortman

“All session, DFLers have been focused on building a Minnesota that works better for everyone, and this year, we’ve made historic progress. Our new state budget makes needed investments in the areas Minnesotans care about and value most: education, health care, economic security, and the safety and vitality of our communities. This is historic, transformational work that will make a positive difference in the lives of Minnesotans for generations to come. I’m grateful to my colleagues, Governor Walz, and the Minnesotans who worked so hard to make these accomplishments a reality.” 

Majority Leader Long

“After years of gridlock under divided government, the DFL Trifecta is delivering results and getting things done for Minnesota. Democrats have positioned our state to solve big challenges and help more Minnesotans meet their needs. The work that has occurred over the past five months will help make Minnesota the best state in the country for children and families. I’m especially proud of the Legislature for taking strong climate action to protect our air, water, and natural resources for future generations. Democrats look forward to engaging with our constituents over the interim and coming back in 2024 to build on this historic session.”

NPR : Minnesota to join at least 4 other states in protecting transgender care this year

By Dana Ferguson, Scott Maucione, Bente Birkeland, Rick Pluta, Colin Jackson, Acacia Squires

This year, at least 12 states have passed legislation to limit or ban gender-affirming health care for young people, adding to several already on the books. In Missouri, restrictions announced last week by the state attorney general would apply to people of any age. With legislative sessions pressing on across the country, more restrictions could be on the way.

At the same time, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico and Minnesota have passed bills designed to shield transgender health care through legal protections, health care coverage and access. Friday, the Minnesota legislature passed protections for youth and parents who seek health care and for the providers that give it. Gov. Tim Walz, who championed the bill, says he will sign it.

"We are going to lead on this issue," said Walz, a second-term Democrat at an LGBTQ rights rally last week. "And I want to make note, not only do you belong here, you are needed here, you're part of the fabric that makes Minnesota the best place in the country to live."

Last year, California passed a similar bill, calling itself a "refuge" state for transgender youth and their families. Also this year, Oregon Democrats are proposing a constitutional amendment to protect care. Washington State and Vermont have their own protective bills.

Minnesota

Friday, the Minnesota Senate voted to pass a House-approved bill that will prevent state courts or officials from complying with child removal requests, extraditions, arrests or subpoenas related to gender-affirming health care that a person receives or provides in Minnesota.

Physicians who practice gender-affirming care in Minnesota, and families who've sought it out for their transgender children or teenagers, have said the bill will go a long way to ensure that they can continue to access treatment without fear of other states' laws. Some have said they've already seen an uptick in prospective patients from states where their options have been eliminated.

"Frequently, we will talk about gender-affirming care as life-saving health care. And we're not saying that to be dramatic," says Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, chief education officer and medical director of the Gender Health program at Children's Minnesota. Kade Goepferd says kids who can't access care "are at significantly higher risk of worse mental health outcomes, including suicidality."

Republicans in the state legislature have opposed extending legal protections to families traveling for gender care services.

"The bill makes Minnesota a sanctuary state for so-called gender-affirming care, while simultaneously infringing on the fundamental right of parenting," said state Rep. Peggy Scott, a Republican, last month.

Maryland: Broadening Medicaid coverage

Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, the Maryland Trans Equity Act broadens the kind of gender-affirming treatments covered under the state's Medicaid plan, aligning it with care that private insurers offer.

Medicaid in Maryland already provides some gender-affirming treatments, but the list would grow to include the ability for individuals to change their hair, make alterations to their face or neck and modify their voice through therapy. Many private insurers already offer those treatments and the law gives parity to those on Medicaid.

In 2022, about 100 people received gender-affirming care through the state's Medicaid program. It's estimated that the law would increase that number by 25 individuals.

Providing gender-affirming care decreases rates of anxiety, depression and other adverse mental health outcomes, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, a significant body of research.

Colorado: Expanded legal protections

Last week, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law to ensure people in other states can come to Colorado for an abortion, to begin puberty blockers or to receive gender-affirming care without fear of prosecution. The law also extends legal protections to providers of abortions and gender-affirming care and a separate law expands insurance coverage.

"Another state's laws that seek to punish providers of reproductive healthcare, or gender-affirming care, do not apply in Colorado," said Democratic State Rep. Meg Froelich, one of the main sponsors of the legislation.

The law, which went into effect April 14, means Colorado will not participate in any out-of-state investigations involving providers or recipients of abortion or gender-affirming care. Similar to the bill in Minnesota, that includes ignoring search warrants, arrests, subpoenas, summons, or extraditions to another state, as long as the activity took place in Colorado and there is no indication those involved broke Colorado law.

The idea to make Colorado a safe haven for trans individuals was first floated last year by Colorado's only transgender state lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Brianna Titone. But Democrats decided not to take up the issue until this year.

The measures to extend legal protections and expand insurance coverage faced lengthy hearings and floor debates, but Republicans didn't have the votes to defeat them.

Cynthia Halversion, a Colorado Springs resident testified against the bill to expand insurance coverage saying she worries it opens the door to "illegitimate practices and practitioners, to perform acts that are against the constitution of the United States of America and the safety and protection of all children."

While many states have moved to restrict gender-affirming care for minors in the past year, none have so far passed laws that punish people for going to other states for treatment.

Michigan: Growing the state’s Civil Rights Act

Michigan hasn't moved to explicitly protect gender-affirming care in statue. Like some other states, though, it has expanded the state's civil rights to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as protected classes.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed a law last month to add those categories under Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which originally protected religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status.

"I am so proud to be here and I am excited to put our state on the right side of history," Whitmer said as she prepared to put her signature to the bill. That move capped nearly four decades of efforts to add LGBTQ protections to state law.

The changes were adopted by the legislature's Democratic majorities over the objections of Republicans and the Michigan Catholic Conference.

"While I fully support this original intent of the Elliott-Larsen Act and understand the importance of protecting individuals from discrimination, I also believe that it is crucial to respect the religious beliefs of small business owners and employers," said Republican state Rep. Rachelle Smit.

But former Rep. Mel Larsen, a Republican who the original law is partially named for, says gay rights were always intended to be part of the protections.

MPR News: Minnesota Democrats win Capitol ‘trifecta’: Governor, House and now Senate

By Brian Bakst and Dana Ferguson

Minnesota Democrats will control the Minnesota Legislature and the governor’s office come 2023, after they picked up the Capitol “trifecta” on Tuesday.

As votes were tallied overnight, Democrats edged out Republicans to flip the Minnesota Senate and to retain a majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives. And Gov. Tim Walz won reelection against Republican challenger Scott Jensen.

Democrats celebrated the result — one they acknowledged was a surprise on Wednesday — and Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen, DFL-Edina, called the 34-33 margin a “Minnesota Senate miracle.”

DFLers had long insisted they were positioned to keep the House, where their majority of 70 seats is a bit tighter than before the election. But the Senate was seen as more of a reach.

And López Franzen said Democrats took it as a directive from voters that they need to compromise with Republicans at the Capitol.

“This is a place where people are measured. They gave us a trifecta with wider margins back in 2012. This one is slimmer,” she said. “That tells us we need to be tempered. But that also tells us they want us to work together.”

Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, conceded the Senate majority on Wednesday morning and in a statement said Republicans would “fight for keeping life affordable for working Minnesotans and seniors, safer communities and support for law enforcement, and more opportunities for students to be successful in the classroom and beyond.”

The result puts Democrats in charge of the governor’s office and both chambers for the first time since 2013 and it means priorities for their party such as codifying abortion access, legalizing marijuana, addressing climate change, boosting education funding and setting up a state paid family leave program could get the green light.

Labor unions, reproductive rights groups and others cheered the result early Wednesday. Both chambers of the Legislature now appear poised to have majorities that support abortion access.

Walz told reporters the shift from divided government sets him up to work with a much more accommodating set of lawmakers. The Democrat spent his first term trying to compromise with the DFL-led House and GOP-controlled Senate. Walz said he’s taking the voter decision as “not just a pat on the back” but a direction to do something.

“Over the last four years, we needed to — because of the divided Legislature — work in a collaborative manner to compromise to get things done,” Walz told reporters at the Capitol. “And I'll say it again: Today, I will work with anyone who is willing to help make things better for Minnesota. And this vote, and the results of that, is very clear what Minnesotans want to see us do.”

The governor, along with Senate Democrats, said they expected issues that passed in the House but failed to get a hearing in the Senate could get new life. Among those are plans to place restrictions on firearms and legalize marijuana for recreational use.

“We can at least have some hearings and talk these out,” he said. “I want the legislative process to work the way it's supposed to work with them.”

And other issues that were near compromise at the close of the 2022 legislative session, such as legalizing sports gambling and exempting Social Security benefits from state income taxes, could also resurface.

As late results came in early Wednesday, returns showed that some influential and long-serving incumbents lost.

Rep. Mary Murphy, DFL-Hermantown, came up just short of a win against Republican Natalie Zeleznikar. Murphy has served 23 terms — or 46 years — and is one of the longest-tenured lawmakers in state history. Her contest could go to a recount. Other territories in northeastern Minnesota that had for years been in DFL hands went to the GOP as well.

On the Republican side, assistant majority leader and Education Committee Chair Roger Chamberlain went down. His Lino Lakes-area seat got a lot more Democratic during redistricting.

Elected legislators are expected to meet later this week to select their leaders and to sort out their first agenda items for the new legislative session.

Minnesota Republicans voice support for price gouging

St. Paul, Minnesota — Imagine going to the store to buy a pack of toilet paper and seeing the cost has risen to over $20 from the previous day for no apparent reason. Or imagine going to a hotel because a major winter storm knocked out the power and your family is freezing only to find the rooms at $1,000 a night. For many in the last year, these situations aren't just hypothetical.

House DFLers are working on a proposal that would ban this type of price gouging. This isn’t a situation where prices rise to meet demand, this is about taking advantage of emergencies for a quick buck and making essential products available to only the wealthy.

This proposal seems rather common-sense, doesn’t it? Apparently not so for Minnesota Republicans. In a recent committee hearing, Republicans not only unanimously voted against this measure but advocated for price gouging as a way to regulate the market.

That is simply wrong. Every Minnesotan deserves access to the things they need to survive. Your income shouldn’t predetermine whether you’re worthy of essential products. Minnesotans deserve to not just survive, but thrive — through this pandemic and beyond. House DFLers will keep working to build a better future for all Minnesotans, no exceptions. 

Read more about DFL representatives’ bill to prohibit price gouging here.

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Response to Republican Legislators participation at Minnesota “Storm the Capitol” rally

St. Paul, Minnesota — Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Majority Leader Ryan Winkler released the following statements on the participation of Republican Representatives Susan Akland, Steve Drazkowski, Mary Franson, Glenn Gruenhagen, Eric Lucero, and Jeremy Munson in the “Storm the Capitol” rally on January 6th. 

“The violence we witnessed in Washington DC has no place in our nation, nor does the rhetoric that encouraged it, incited it, and celebrated it — including at an event at our State Capitol,” said Speaker Hortman. “The Republican members who attended this event must renounce the violent rhetoric used at the rally they attended and renounce the seditious rhetoric and insurrection that occurred in Washington DC. It is reprehensible that an event these members attended called for civil war and casualties.” 

“For weeks, the nation’s top Republican politicians used language and rhetoric that incited this week’s failed attack on American democracy,” said Majority Leader Ryan Winkler. “On the same day a violent mob invaded our nation’s capitol, Republican politicians in Minnesota turned a blind eye to violent rhetoric spoken in front of our State Capitol. These Republican members need to be held accountable if they fail to denounce threats made against public servants and our democratic process. This is about whether democracy, rule of law, and the Constitution govern this nation, or whether this nation is governed by a violent mob.”

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Minnesota House DFL Announces Highest Cash on Hand Ever at Current Stage of Campaign

ST. PAUL, MN - The Minnesota House DFL announced today fundraising numbers surpassing every previous election year’s internal second quarter cash on hand amounts. The campaign ended the second quarter with $569,554.67 raised and $1,126,711.45 cash on hand. This is the highest cash on hand held by the House DFL at this stage of a campaign.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the senseless murder of George Floyd sharply brought into focus the inequities and disparities that were present in our state all along,” said Melissa Hortman, Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. “Today, in the middle of a global pandemic, a special session of a divided legislature, and nation-wide civil unrest against systemic racism, the need to hold and expand the House DFL majority has never been more important. We are working to build a better future for all Minnesotans — no exceptions.”

“The House DFL, led by the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus, are working diligently to pass public safety reform, but the Republican-led Minnesota Senate would rather pack up their bags and go home,” said Ryan Winkler, Majority Leader of the Minnesota House. “We are committed to creating deep and lasting change and safeguarding Minnesotans’ lives, health, and economic well-being — but we need to protect our House DFL majority in order to continue this work.”

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Minnesota House Approves COVID-19 Workers’ Compensation for Frontline Responders

St. Paul, MN - Today, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed legislation delivering workers’ compensation benefits to health care and public safety workers who contract COVID-19 in the line of duty. In particular, the legislation provides a presumption that if these workers contract COVID, they did so during the course of their employment and are covered by workers’ compensation. 

The legislation goes into effect for employees who contract COVID-19​ on or after the day following final enactment. 

“It’s easy to find the heroes in this pandemic,” said House Speaker Melissa Hortman. “Our first responders and health care workers are putting themselves on the front line of this battle every day. They need to know we have their backs. We are pleased we were able to come to a consensus on this important issue.” 

The legislation is the result of an agreement reached by legislative leaders in both the Minnesota House and Senate, as well as Governor Walz. 

“We owe our first responders, firefighters, police officers, nurses, and health care workers an immeasurable debt of gratitude,” said House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler. “This legislation is overdue. Our first responders and front line health care workers need us to support them and their families.” 

In compliance with recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health, the majority of legislators voted remotely on the legislation. 

“This legislation has the backs of the Minnesotans who are putting themselves at risk to make sure our state remains safe and healthy,” said Rep. Dan Wolgamott (DFL - St. Cloud) chief author of the bill. “These are exposed, vulnerable positions, and the least we can do is provide them peace of mind with the economic security they deserve. Should any of our public safety, health care or childcare workers get this virus, they can now focus on getting healthy instead of worrying about their paycheck or how they’re going to provide for their family.”

A copy of the legislation can be found here, and a video recording of the House floor session can be found on the House Public Information YouTube page. The legislation is expected to be passed by the Minnesota Senate and signed by Governor Walz. 

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Minnesota House DFL Announces Record-Breaking Fundraising Numbers

ST. PAUL, MN - The Minnesota House DFL announced today record-setting fundraising numbers for 2019. The campaign ended 2019 with $1,603,626 raised and $1,158,020 cash on hand - the most money ever raised by a legislative party unit in a non-election year.

“Momentum is on our side,” said Melissa Hortman, Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. “Our record-breaking fundraising numbers reflect that Minnesotans are tired of President Trump and Republicans who consistently work to divide us based on what we look like, where we’re from, or where we live.  The Minnesota House DFL will keep working until our bold, progressive vision for a Minnesota that works better for everyone is a reality.”  

“We are excited by the surge of small-dollar donors who supported us this year,” said Ryan Winkler, Majority Leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives. “Minnesotans value our shared vision and recognize the importance of a forward-looking majority in the Minnesota House.”

2019 Fundraising Fact Sheet:

• The most money raised by a legislative party unit in a non-election year - Republican or Democrat, House or Senate - in history.

• The House DFL more than doubled its previous non-election year cash on hand.

• Over half of total contributions came from online grassroots fundraising.

• The average online grassroots contribution was $46.43 - below the maximum per person Political Contribution Refund Program amount of $50.

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