Democrats regain one-seat advantage in Minnesota Senate, but for how long?

Just moments after Ann Johnson Stewart completed her oath of office to become the 67th member of the Minnesota Senate (and officially restoring the DFL’s 34-33 majority) on Tuesday, she addressed the supportive crowd sprawled along the upper chamber floor to help celebrate her return to the legislature after a nearly two-year absence.

“The last time I was here I promised I would continue to work throughout the state on infrastructure and everybody kind of laughed because that’s kind of my gig,” Johnson Stewart said from the rostrum as she struggled to hold back tears.

Those emotions were on display just less than two years after Johnson Stewart willingly gave up her reelection bid in 2022 to then-state Rep. Kelly Morrison, who effectively pushed out and replaced a sitting member of the Senate in her own party. Two years later it was Morrison’s premature departure from her Senate District 45 seat to pursue a seat in Congress that opened the window for Johnson Stewart’s re-entry to an elected office she intimated that she never really wanted to leave.

“I promised it and somehow I landed here again,” Johnson Stewart told family, friends, fellow senators and Democrat Party faithful in attendance. “Through an enormous amount of hard work, not just by me, but by all of my team that’s back there, and all the staff, and all my former colleagues and now current colleagues, who really believe we have such important work to do. And this job is really where I am meant to be. And I am just incredulous that I am actually here again.”

One-seat majority in Senate is diminished by GOP gains in House

What that means for the Senate heading into a 2025 budget session remains to be seen. Johnson Stewart’s 5-point win over Republican challenger Kathleen Fowke in their Nov. 5 special election allowed the DFL to regain its one-seat majority heading into the next two years.

The power that the DFL’s one-seat majority had the previous two years has been diminished by Republican gains in the House, where they have ensured at least a 67-67 tie among DFL and GOP members. Johnson Stewart’s election helped Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, retain her majority leader status.

Based on Johnson Stewart’s legislative record and rhetoric, she is considered by many to be as politically progressive as her predecessor, Morrison, who authored bills for physician-assisted suicide and one of the most far-reaching abortion laws in the nation. Morrison also helped the DFL’s one-seat Senate majority pass a 38-percent increase to the state budget in 2023.

DFL senator’s burglary trial looming

But while the Minnesota Senate isn’t up for reelection until 2026, there is another potential one-seat special election looming.

In January, the felony burglary trial for embattled Democrat Sen. Nicole Mitchell, of Woodbury, is scheduled to begin.

Last spring Mitchell became a pariah in the Senate after her April 22 arrest and subsequent felony charge when it was discovered she had allegedly broken into her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home before dawn. In May, DFL Party Chair Ken Martin and Gov. Tim Walz both publicly called on Mitchell to resign. She has stated she will not resign. And since then, Mitchell, who represents Senate District 47, has steadily attempted to integrate herself back into the regular appearances that senators make in their official capacity outside of session.

If Mitchell were to be found guilty of felony burglary, it’s possible that pressure would mount for her to resign before her term ends in December 2026.

If that happens, a new special election may take place, and it could be just as expensive as it was for Democrats to ensure Johnson Stewart’s election victory.

But the prospect of Democrats having to put together another war chest for a special election did not appear to be on the mind of Majority Leader Murphy when she spoke optimistically about Johnson Stewart’s addition to her caucus on Tuesday.

“Not everybody finds their way into this Senate chamber,” Murphy said. “But this is the place we are charged with the responsibility of setting the course of the future for the people of Minnesota … And the 67 of us, who are lucky to be sent in, have the awesome responsibility of finding our way together to do the important work of the people.”

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