ST. PAUL – House Democrats on Thursday ended their weeks-long shutdown of state government and the Minnesota House officially came to order.
House Democrats did not appear at the Capitol for the first day of the 2025 session on Jan. 14 and remained absent in the weeks since. Their arrival Thursday came after Republicans and Democrats announced they reached an organizational agreement Wednesday.
“I’m looking forward to finally get down to official business helping the people of Minnesota by working the six priority issues House Republicans share with citizens of our state,” said Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent. “It’s unfortunate House Democrats killed three and a half weeks of the 2025 session by staging a shutdown, but it’s good we’re up and running now.”
Republican Leader Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, will serve as the Speaker of the House for the next two years, elevating her to the second-most powerful elected position in state government. Demuth is the first Republican Speaker of the House in six years.
In addition, Republicans will hold an operating majority in a brand-new Fraud and Agency Oversight Committee they created to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in state government.
“It’s great to see justice prevailed with Rep. Demuth serving as our House Speaker through 2026,” Swedzinski said. “House Republicans currently are in the majority and that’s how the vote would have played out when the session began Jan. 14. It’s also good that House Republicans will have a majority controlling our new committee on fraud so that issue can receive the serious attention it warrants.”
In general, Republicans will have full control of committee hearings and committee chairs for the next five weeks, until a March 11 special election takes place to resolve a vacancy in House District 40B.
If the special election in 40B returns the House to a 67-67 tie, committee structures will revert to the co-chair model that had been tentatively agreed upon in the weeks following the November election. That includes equal Democrat and Republican members on all committees, except for the committee on fraud remaining in Republican control, per the organizational agreement.
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