The activity surrounding the anti-ICE protests in the Twin Cities has been fierce — and that is inspirational to everyone else in the world dealing with autocratic regimes. It remained to be seen whether or not that anti-regime fervor would translate at the ballot box. THAT IS THE ONLY VIABLE METHOD OF VICTORY.
After last night, there can be no question: voters in the Twin Cities are PISSED.
But first, some background:
Two special elections Tuesday in heavily Democratic Twin Cities-area state legislative districts will decide control of the Minnesota House of Representatives for the third time in less than a year.
Republicans hold a 67-65 advantage in the chamber after two Democratic representatives were elected to other offices in November. The chamber has operated under a power-sharing agreement between the two parties for much of the last year.
In District 47A, Democrat Shelley Buck is the only candidate on the ballot, although voters have the option to vote for a write-in candidate. Buck is a former environmental nonprofit executive and former president of the Prairie Island Tribal Council.
The district is east of St. Paul. It falls mostly within Washington County but includes a portion of Ramsey County. In 2024, both Democratic state Rep. Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried District 47A with about 61% of the vote in their races. Hemmingsen-Jaeger won a special election to the state Senate in 2025.
In District 64A, the nominees are Democrat Meg Luger-Nikolai and Republican Dan Walsh. Luger-Nikolai is a labor attorney who represented a statewide teachers union. Walsh runs a real estate property management company and has worked in cybersecurity and tech sales. He was the GOP nominee for this seat in 2022 and 2024.
The district is entirely within Ramsey County and stretches most of the distance between St. Paul and Minneapolis. Democratic state Rep. Kaohly Her and Harris each won the district with more than 83% of the vote in 2024. Her was elected mayor of St. Paul in 2025.
With Buck the only candidate on the ballot in District 47A, The Associated Press will treat the contest as uncontested and will call the race as soon as polls close, unless there is any indication of an organized write-in effort for another candidate.
In District 64A, Walsh will need to far outperform the approximately 15% and 17% of the vote he received in his 2022 and 2024 runs, respectively. With almost all the vote expected to be released in just one or two batches, a race call could be possible at the first sign of an overwhelming margin.
One district went uncontested by the GOP. They couldn’t even scrounge up a candidate!
In the other district… It is very difficult to overperform in a Harris +71, Biden +72 district. It takes even more effort to convert the remaining voters (or convince them to stay home) with each point of margin. Yet somehow, this happened last night:
That’s right — we won by Assad-like margins in the Twin Cities. A 20-point overperformance in a Harris +71 district. A result I didn’t even consider possible. There are some caveats of course. Turnout was only about 1/4th of 2024 turnout which is understandable given the circumstances. Most voters in both parties stayed home. Yet would the margin have been much different had more voters participated?
The question of course is if we can replicate these special election performances across the nation. I am skeptical we will win by 20+ point overperformances everywhere but high single digits is possible. That would easily flip the House of Representatives and make us competitive in the Senate.
Here’s how you can help: by donating anything you can spare to these 15 House challengers and the 9 critical Senate races.
The Good News Roundup team has already raised over $45,000 for Democratic candidates in 2026. Let’s work to stymie the Trump regime and build a brick wall in Congress to end implementation of his cruel agenda!
