Minnesota legislative standoff spills out of the Statehouse into the courthouse

After an intense power standoff Tuesday in the Minnesota House, attention shifted Wednesday from lawmakers to lawyers.

Sixty-six Democrats boycotted the first day of the session as a tactic to deny a quorum and keep the chamber from conducting any business.

Republicans put up all 67 of their votes Tuesday in the half-empty House to make GOP Leader Lisa Demuth their speaker, ignoring DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon’s move to stop the session.

Both parties are preparing now for court battles funded in part by taxpayers.

Simon’s asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to weigh in and deem Tuesday’s Republican-only session unlawful. The court late Wednesday said it will hear arguments on Jan. 23.

Separately, top House DFLers sued to invalidate the GOP’s election of Demuth as speaker because there weren’t 68 votes in the chamber.

Republicans said they’ll defend their decision and that Simon’s the one who overstepped the law. They insist it takes only 67 members to conduct House business because it only has 133 certified members, pending a special election set for Jan. 28.

In a sign of how odd things are right now, Simon had planned to convene the House at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday to highlight the lack of a quorum that’s “consistent with House custom, its most recent rules, and Mason’s Legislative Manual,” his spokesperson said.

Instead, Simon was told by House Republican leaders that he would be stopped at the door and denied entry to the House floor.

A House GOP spokesperson confirmed that was the case, writing: “The House is duly organized and Secretary Simon has no reason to be in the House Chamber.”

Fighting over who has what power

For the moment, the turmoil centers around statutory authority.

Simon in a separate filing echoed the argument and said that he remains the presiding officer in the chamber until 68 members show up.

“Until a quorum is present and a speaker is properly elected, the Secretary remains the House’s presiding officer and his role may not be usurped,” he wrote.

Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said Republicans would defend the House chamber from what she views as an “attack on our Constitutional separation of powers.”

“Secretary Simon has no authority as a member of the executive branch over proceedings in the House, and his role is strictly ceremonial in nature,” she said in a statement Wednesday morning. “There is ample precedent in the Minnesota Supreme Court and from the framers of Minnesota’s constitution regarding quorum.”

Rep. Harry Niska, a GOP leader, said Simon exceeded his power on Tuesday.

“The Legislature gets to decide what its quorum rules are going to be. The Legislature gets to decide what its internal rules are going to be. The Legislature gets to decide who its presiding officers are going to be,” Niska said. “The secretary of state doesn’t get to control that.” 

The House Rules Committee, with only Republican members present on Wednesday, approved a resolution retaining attorneys to represent Demuth and Republicans against the legal challenges.

Niska recused himself from the vote since he works with the attorneys at his law firm. He said they would be hired by an outside firm for their work on that case.“ My law firm will not benefit from it, and I don’t have a personal interest,” he told reporters.

House DFL Leader Jamie Long condemned the move and raised questions about whether Niska could benefit financially. House Democrats have said their court challenge would be funded by campaign dollars.

Rep. Elliott Engen, who brought forward the proposal, and said it was important that Republicans be able to defend themselves before the court.

“We showed up. We were here to ready to do, to do the work, and unfortunately, Democrats were not,” Engen, R-White Bear Township, told MPR News. “And to allege that there was some sort of a coup that took place is simply laughable on the face of it, and I think that voters in Minnesota know that as well.”

Republicans accuse Democrats of violating state law by having their members take an oath of office at a private ceremony on Sunday — two days before the formal start of the 2025 session. Republicans referred to their Democratic colleagues Tuesday as “Representative-elect,” but so far haven’t initiated court action to challenge whether they are duly sworn.

Separately on Wednesday, Minnesota Supreme Court justices heard arguments on a Republican lawsuit around the single remaining contested House seat that will decide whether the chamber goes forward as a 67-67 DFL-GOP split or a 68-66 Republican majority.

The District 40B seat came open after the prior election winner, a Democrat, bowed out amid a residency dispute. Gov. Tim Walz set Jan. 28 for an election to fill the Roseville-area seat. Republicans are seeking to delay the election.

Walz weighs in on House GOP moves

Walz, who didn’t make his typical rounds to greet lawmakers on the first day, issued a statement questioning the validity of the House proceedings.

“As much as House Republicans may want to govern as a single party, the law is the law and the House is not in session,” Walz said in a written statement. “House Republicans need to assure Minnesotans that they won’t overturn an election or take power voters didn’t give them. Once that common sense commitment is made, the important work that the House has in front of them can move forward.”

The Minnesota Supreme Court has already been drawn into an election dispute over one unsettled House seat, with a hearing Wednesday morning over the timing of an upcoming special election.

That seat — the 134th — had been in Democratic hands after November’s election. But the winner, Curtis Johnson, bowed out after a judge found he didn’t establish proper residency in the district. 

Walz scheduled a special election for Jan. 28, but Republicans sued saying that the actual vacancy hadn’t occurred and the election couldn’t be put on a fast track.

“Johnson was not in possession of the office, so he was not an incumbent capable of resigning to create a vacancy,” attorneys for the Republican Party and the Minnesota Voters Alliance wrote in a brief submitted to the court this week. The case seeks to cancel and reschedule the Jan. 28 special election.

An attorney for Walz said he properly employed a state law allowing for special election preparations when a vacancy is inevitable.

In their rebooted session Tuesday, House Republicans passed a resolution that would set Tuesday as the day the seat actually came open. If that position holds up, it would push off the election until February or beyond. That would keep Republicans in a 67 to 66 position for longer.

It’s not the only seat that’s a point of contention. A judge ruled Tuesday that DFL Rep. Brad Tabke’s narrow election win should stand although Republicans aren’t agreeing they’ll seat him.  

Meanwhile, the Senate has opened without the tensions gripping the House. A power-sharing agreement has resulted in co-chamber presidents, equal representation on committees and an agreement that no commissioner confirmation or bill votes happen without joint agreement.

Senate Republican Leader Mark Johnson said he and Democratic Leader Erin Murphy worked hard to strike the agreement.

“Nobody had those gotcha moments,” Johnson said. “Think less of like a WWE conversation and more like an escape room where we’re just trying to figure out how to make this work together to get to an end goal.”

MPR News reporters Kirsti Marohn and Peter Cox contributed to this story.