67 MN House Republicans Elect Speaker, All Democrats Absent

ST. PAUL, MN — Minnesota House Republicans, with 67 members present, voted to elect Rep. Lisa Demuth as Speaker of the House on the legislative session's opening day.

All 66 duly elected Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party House members were absent, staging a protest and denying quorum due to the absence of a power-sharing agreement.

Before the speaker vote, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon adjourned the session, citing the lack of quorum with only 67 members present. Simon wrote a memo to Republicans Monday stating that 68 members are necessary for a quorum.

"I respectfully disagree, however, as to your conclusion that a quorum is based on the current membership of the House, rather than its total membership," Simon wrote.

A majority of 134 members — the total membership of the House — requires 68 votes. As of Tuesday, there are only 133 sworn members of the Minnesota House, so Republicans consider 67 members a quorum.

Democrats are currently down one member after a court ruled that Rep.-elect Curtis Johnson had violated state residency requirements. Johnson subsequently stepped down, giving Republicans a temporary 67-66 advantage until a special election is held on Jan. 28.

However, following Simon’s departure from the chamber Tuesday afternoon, Republicans declared a quorum anyway, conducted a roll call, and proceeded with the vote to elect Demuth.

MN Democrats Hold Private, Early Swearing-In At History Center

Minnesota House Democrats were sworn into office Sunday evening in a private ceremony at the Minnesota History Center in a covert parlimentary tactic. State Republicans said the ceremony was illegal.

"Last week we publicly stated our reasons for denying quorum – we would like Republicans to honor the will of the voters," said DFL Speaker-designate Melissa Hortman.

"In the event Democrats choose to deny quorum, we wanted to be sure to have all our members properly and legally sworn in and we did that this evening."

This is a breaking news story.

Watch the session live below: