Taking Control: Minnesota DFL flips senate for first trifecta in 8 years

ST. PAUL, MN -- In a surprising win Tuesday night, Minnesota democrats not only held on to the governor’s office and state house but flipped the state senate as well.

The results gave the party the state’s first legislative trifecta since 2014.

“I am so happy, I am so tired, but this is a good day, and my colleagues and I are celebrating with our senate DFL caucus for a Minnesota senate miracle,” said Senator Melisa López Franzen, the Senate DFL Caucus Leader.

The win opens the door for the party to pass legislation without roadblocks from the GOP, but it wasn’t a win many were expecting.

“The most unexpected thing I could have imagined was not only Walz winning, which I think some would have predicted, but that this DFL would have taken the House and Senate,” said Aaron Brown, author and columnist for ‘Minnesota Brown.’

Brown believes democrats showed up to vote for issues that mattered to them, but also thinks more moderate voters could have played a part.

“The abortion ruling by the Supreme Court, that turned out a lot of people that I’m not saying wouldn’t have voted, but they might not have voted, and they might not have voted for democrats. They did in this instance for this reason,” said Brown.

Control of the senate puts freshman senators like newly-elected Grant Hauschild in a unique position.

Hauschild won the election against Andrea Zupancich for District 3, a seat formerly held by longtime senator Tom Bakk.

After Tuesday, Hauschild and his fellow DFL representatives and senators have a chance to make policies on abortion and other issues.

“Women’s reproductive freedom was a key message throughout my campaign. It’s something that we need to make sure we’re defending in Minnesota,” he said.

Hauschild also said Minnesota may see some legislators move to legalize cannabis.

“A majority of Minnesotans are ready for the passage of legal marijuana. That’s something that I would support,” he said.

Hauschild could very well be an important vote in a state senate that now sits at a 34-33 DFL minority.

He and other DFLers will look to get things done as quickly as possible to take advantage of the unique situation.

“I’d like to address health care costs and a lot of the rising costs that folks are facing, and I want to work across the aisle and be really that that Senator that’s right there in the middle, negotiating with both sides and making deals,” he said.

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