‘Run, Govern, Run.’ Can Democrats Keep Minnesota Trifecta?

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‘Run, Govern, Run’ - Can Democrats Keep Minnesota Trifecta?: Minnesota Democrats (DFL) have some regrets about the last time they controlled all three branches of the state government, back in 2013 and 2014. The party had a big agenda, with plans for climate action, transportation spending, and LGBT rights, among many other issues. But with a gubernatorial election pending, legislative leaders didn’t want to push too far.

“There was a little bit of caution,” says state Rep. Melissa Hortman, who now serves as speaker of the House. “‘Don’t overreach. Hold the harder, more progressive things until 2015.”

Instead, the Democrats lost control of the House, and the potential for much of their agenda, in the 2014 election. When they won a trifecta again in 2022, taking the house and senate and re-electing Gov. Tim Walz, the mantra was “Run, govern, run.”

“We decided to go ahead and try to accomplish our entire agenda, and that included many things that have been pending for 10 years,” Hortman says.

Now, having passed a host of progressive bills in the last two years, the DFL is trying to keep its majorities. Last week, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a national group that works to elect Democrats in state legislatures, announced 13 target races for the Minnesota House that it plans to back with campaign resources. The DFL currently has 68 representatives in the House to the Republicans’ 64. All members are up for re-election this year.

Polling suggests voters are still motivated by the same issues they were in the last election. But the case for a continuing DFL house majority looks a little bit different following the successful passage of so much progressive legislation. Rather than promising dramatic changes, the party is arguing it needs to protect its gains from being lost, and is making the case that it can improve voters’ lives through implementation.

Republicans argue that the state has seen enough. Some of the House seats currently held by Democrats are in districts with very tight partisan splits. Some Republicans are campaigning to keep seats in competitive districts partly by arguing the Democrats used their majorities to overreach and overspend.

But Democrats are embracing their record. The state enacted a new paid family leave law last year that takes effect in 2026. Hortman wants to let voters know that passing the law was a DFL achievement.

DFL members feel good about their chances in November, with their popular governor at the top of the Democratic ticket alongside Vice President Kamala Harris. But winning a trifecta is a rare thing in Minnesota, and keeping it is rarer still: The DFL last held all three branches of the state government for two consecutive sessions in the 1980s. They’re hoping their work over the last few years will pay off.

Young Women Move Left: Young women in the United States are substantially more likely to identify as liberal and to support liberal policies today than they were in the past, according to a new Gallup study.

The study, which analyzed responses to Gallup polls across a range of issues dating back to 2001, shows that young women have been more likely to identify as liberal than both older women and men of all ages for decades. But they’ve moved left more than other demographics in the last decade, while the political views of young men have stayed roughly the same. An average of 40 percent of women ages 18-29 have identified as liberal in Gallup studies over the last eight years, as compared to 32 percent in the period from 2008-2016 and 28 percent from 2001-2007. Only 25 percent of young men identify as liberal today, similar to rates in the past. About 20 percent of men over 30 and 27 percent of women over 30 identify as liberal, according to the study.

The shift to the left has occurred among young women regardless of race and educational attainment. They have become much likelier to associate with liberal positions on climate change, environmental protection, gun control, health-care policy and abortion rights. Younger women are also more likely to express sympathies with Palestinians and support for a Palestinian state. The leftward shift has occurred during a period that roughly started with the election of Donald Trump.

“This particular generation of women have been experiencing politics in some pretty dramatic ways,” says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Trump’s Access Hollywood comments, the #MeToo movement and the overturning of Roe v. Wade are all potential factors in the increasing liberal identification of young women, Walsh says. Also there are other material factors, like the fact that women hold about two-thirds of all student loan debt.

Women are increasingly running for and holding elected office and taking the lead in policy debates. There are currently about 2,400 women serving in state legislatures, making up about a third of all state legislative offices. There are about twice as many Democratic women in legislatures as there are Republicans. At one time the partisan gap was much smaller, but it’s growing, perhaps because the Democratic Party has been especially aggressive about recruiting women.

What Happens in Vegas? The state with the highest proportion of women in state legislative office is Nevada. In its biggest city, Las Vegas, two women are currently running to replace the city’s outgoing mayor, Carolyn Goodman, who took office in 2011 after her husband, Oscar Goodman, had held the position for 12 years.

The last quarter century has been a period of massive growth for Las Vegas, with a nearly 40 percent increase in city residents since 1999. The Las Vegas metro area is among the fastest-growing places in the U.S. That comes with some issues that are common to all growing cities, like upward pressure on housing prices, and some that are particular to the desert west, like water conservation and dangerous urban heat.

One issue in the mayor’s race that’s unique to Vegas is a land use dispute between the city and a developer that’s been going on for almost 20 years. The case involves a former golf course known as the Badlands. A developer bought the property and planned to build housing there. But the city refused to issue permits for the project amid opposition from nearby homeowners. Courts have ruled that the city’s actions amounted to an illegal taking of the property. And the sum the city owes the developer keeps growing. When all the cases are decided, the liability could be north of $400 million, with wide-reaching consequences for taxpayers and city government. The city manager recently announced that some vacant positions will go unfilled while the litigation continues.

The candidates in the November mayoral runoff, former U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley and Las Vegas City Council member Victoria Seaman, faced each other at a debate last month. Berkley is a registered Democrat and Seaman is a Republican, though the race is officially nonpartisan. Both candidates said the city needs to settle the Badlands case to avoid even higher litigation costs.

But a settlement has been hard to reach. Seaman says that other members of the City Council have been unwilling to agree to terms with the developer, and have continued to appeal the court decisions, which keep piling up. She has touted her endorsements from law enforcement groups and said it’s important to elect city leaders who understand land use. “We can’t afford to be California and we can’t afford another Badlands,” Seaman said at the debate.

Berkley, who won more votes in the nonpartisan primary election in May, criticized Seaman for not being able to convince other council members to go along with a settlement. She said she would have better luck negotiating a deal with city officials and the developers in a way that would “make the developer whole.”

The Badlands case has put a spotlight on the city government’s missteps around development issues and raised questions about its visions for growth. But setting aside the potential legal liabilities, Las Vegas is poised for more growth. The city is anticipating the relocation of the Oakland Athletics baseball franchise to Las Vegas, and there have been rumblings about an NBA basketball expansion there as well — potentially significant boosts to civic pride and sports tourism.