ST. PAUL 鈥� The Minnesota House is set to return to a 67-67 tie after Tuesday鈥檚 special election for District 40B put DFL candidate David Gottfried on top.
Gottfried, of Shoreview, took 70% of the vote in the Tuesday, March 11 election for the Roseville-area seat, and Republican candidate Paul Wikstrom took 30%, according to the unofficial results from the Secretary of State鈥檚 office. Turnout for the election hit 46%, with 13,300 ballots cast out of 28,550 voters that were registered as of 7 a.m. Tuesday.
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鈥淭his victory is for Roseville, Shoreview, and every constituent who hasn鈥檛 been represented for weeks," Gottfried said in a statement following his victory Tuesday. "I couldn鈥檛 be more thrilled to be headed to Saint Paul as soon as possible to get to work for this district and Minnesota."
Wikstrom quickly took to X following his loss, thanking his supporters and team.
"In spite of today's outcome, we have made a lot of progress," Wikstrom said on X. "I look forward to working with Minnesotans to make more good things happen."
Pending certification of official results and the swearing-in of Gottfried, the election's outcome will place the House back into a power-sharing agreement that was formed after November鈥檚 general election. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, will remain speaker of the House, but committees will revert back to utilizing co-chairs rather than being Republican-led, as outlined by a established in early February.
Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, told members of the press on Monday that election results would likely not be certified until March 17 at the earliest. Hortman, who said she anticipated the election would return the House to a tie, said she hoped a tie would result in some bipartisan work getting done.
鈥淭his win confirms we will be working under the power-sharing agreement we negotiated with House Republicans," Hortman said in a Tuesday night statement. "Democrats have been ready to work in a bipartisan way for months. It鈥檚 time for our Republican colleagues to leave the partisan games behind and work with us to craft a budget for the people of Minnesota.鈥�
The Roseville/Shoreview seat became vacant in December after a Ramsey County judge ruled that former Rep.-elect Curtis Johnson had not been residing during the six-month period before the election, as is required by state law.
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Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, mentioned the issue of residency in a Wednesday statement following the special election results.
鈥淚t was always going to be an uphill battle to win in a dark blue Democrat seat, but we look forward to having the House back at full strength," Demuth said. "I want to thank Paul Wikstrom for running an incredible race and ensuring that District 40B is represented by someone who actually resides in the community."
Tuesday's special election was originally set for Jan. 28 but was rescheduled after the Minnesota Supreme Court sided with that Gov. Tim Walz called for the special election too quickly. The Roseville seat has been vacant since, giving Republicans a 67-66 majority in the House for the first months of the session.
The Trust Project
