The newest member of the Minnesota legislature told a national media outlet in recent days that he’s prepared to work with Republicans toward a bipartisan solution to a state budget.
But David Gottfried also said he’s entering the Minnesota House of Representatives motivated to defend “all the good work Minnesota did a couple years back with a DFL trifecta.”
On Monday, Gottfried took the oath of office in the House chamber and then took his place as its 134th member, which officially pulled Democrats into a 67-67 tie with Republicans.
That tie triggered a power-sharing agreement after five weeks of a one-seat majority that House Republicans used to kickstart several pieces of priority legislation.
Gottfried refrained from giving any comments on the floor Monday following his March 11 win in the House District 40B special election.
But the labor activist from Shoreview did take some time last week in a brief, post-election interview with MSNBC to say “sorry” to Canada for what he described as “chaos” that President Donald Trump is “sowing” on the federal level.
“It’s never been more urgent that we work together in St. Paul to shield Minnesotans from the chaos,” Gottfried said in a statement read during the interview.
When asked by the host “what’s your message to your neighbors in Canada,” with respect to the ongoing dispute over tariffs, Gottfried apologized on behalf of Minnesotans.
“We’re so sorry what’s happening down here,” he said. “Frankly, they don’t deserve what’s happening to them and it’s hurting Minnesotans.”
“What the federal government is doing is taking so much away from Minnesotans, and here at the state level we have to make sure our Republican Party at the state level can’t take more away.”
Whether that’s red meat for MSNBC’s left-leaning audience or a promise to dig in and defend the 40% budget increase that Democrats passed in 2023 remains to be seen.
Under 67-67 tie GOP and DFL will rotate gavels in legislative committees
What is known is that for the remainder of the legislative session, Democrats and Republicans in the House will take turns passing the gavel between designated co-chairs of legislative committees—on a daily basis.
Per a Feb. 5 power-sharing agreement, Republican Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth will keep her title and role for the remainder of the 2025-26 biennium, but the Republican caucus will no longer have the sole ability to control which bills make it to the floor for debate and a vote.
Gottfried, who didn’t return several requests for comment from Alpha News during his 10-week special election campaign, told Minnesota Public Radio last week that Republicans and Democrats “have no choice but to work together.”
“I mean, we need to,” Gottfried said. “A majority of votes are needed to pass legislation out of the House. And neither party is going to have a majority. So just procedurally, we are going to have to work together. And I think that reality is a really, really exciting opportunity.”
DFL, Walz will need GOP to pass any legislation
Following Gottfried’s 40-point win in the election last week—in a district that has voted for Democrats by double-digit margins for several election cycles—House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman criticized Republicans for the work they put forward during their temporary majority, which followed three weeks of a DFL boycott in the chamber.
“Republicans spent the last month focusing on divisive political stunts instead of solutions to real problems people are facing,” Hortman said.
Two of those bills included attempts by Republicans to restore protections for infants born alive after botched abortions and a grant program for pregnancy resources centers—which were both repealed by the DFL trifecta in 2023. Other bills would have banned biological males from girls’ sports in Minnesota and returned a portion of future surpluses to taxpayers.
Last month Democrats also sank a bill on the House floor that would have curtailed the emergency powers that Gov. Tim Walz held for more than 400 days in 2020 and 2021.
Republican leadership told media last week that Democrats will have to come closer to the center and work with Republicans in a post-trifecta reality, where at least one GOP vote in the House will be needed to get any legislation onto the desk of Gov. Walz.
“We really haven’t seen a lot of engagement from his job at all, frankly,” House GOP Leader Harry Niska told KARE 11 about Walz’s multi-state town hall tour. “It’s really unfortunate because we didn’t have Democrats show up for work at the beginning of the legislative session, and now we have a Democratic governor who is not showing up for his job, and instead, his focus is elsewhere.”
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
