A DFL legislator-elect is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of not actually living in the north metro state House district he ran to represent this fall. On Tuesday, the judge in the case, Leonardo Castro, will preside over a motion hearing to decide if the case should proceed.
Last Wednesday, attorneys for Curtis Johnson filed a motion in Ramsey County asking the district court to dismiss the legal challenge brought earlier this month by his House District 40B opponent, Republican Paul Wikstrom, which alleges Johnson “failed to establish residency and remain in the district six months prior to the general election or maintain residency 30 days prior to the general election.”
Wikstrom alleges Johnson continued to live in the Little Canada house—outside District 40B—he owns with his wife in the days leading up to the Nov. 5 election.
Wikstrom’s complaint contains dozens of documented instances campaign volunteers gathered that, Wikstrom says, show Johnson lived at the Little Canada house and not at the Roseville apartment he has been renting and listed as his home address when he filed to run for the seat in May.
Wikstrom is asking the court to “invalidate and revoke any certificate of election issued to Johnson because of his deliberate, serious, and material violation of Minnesota election law.”
Johnson’s eight-page motion to dismiss says he registered a political committee to run for the Minnesota House of Representatives in January 2024, and then in March “signed a lease” at an apartment complex in Roseville “and began living there” even as he and his wife were searching for a new house in District 40B.
Johnson’s attorneys also claim that Johnson lived in the apartment from March through early November, but “because Johnson usually worked from the office or a coffee shop, he did not set up internet at the apartment. During the busy campaign season, Johnson would often work all day, door knock, and come home to the apartment to sleep.”
Johnson’s attorneys wrote that there “is no case law showing that a court ever entertained a residency challenge under the election contest statute after an election has been held.” They cite the “doctrine of laches” claiming that Wikstrom didn’t bring the residency issues to the court before the election took place.
Longtime DFL-allied attorney Charlie Nauen is one of three attorneys Johnson has appointed to represent him in the civil lawsuit. Nauen was one of five attorneys who filed a lawsuit, unsuccessfully, last year to keep Donald Trump off the ballot in Minnesota.
If Judge Castro denies the motion to dismiss, an evidentiary hearing is expected to follow. The judge will then issue findings and a recommendation to transmit to the House of Representatives. The House currently sits at a 67-67 tie among DFL and GOP representatives slated to take office when the legislature resumes next month.
Wikstrom’s attorney, Nick Morgan, has declined to comment on the litigation, but Wikstrom told Alpha News in the days leading up to the election that he has “talked to people who have told us [Curtis Johnson] is still living in his Little Canada address and not in Roseville.”
“If he wants to be a legislator in Minnesota, he should comply with the law just like the rest of us,” Wikstrom added. “I feel an obligation as a candidate in this race to make sure voters know that.”
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.
