The Minnesota Primary Election held on August 9 contained a few surprises.  Legislatively, the biggest change was the defeat of one of Minnesota’s longest serving House members, Representative Phyllis Kahn.  In a sign of the changing demographics of her District, Kahn was defeated by Ilhan Omar, who will likely become the first Somali-American legislator in the United States.  The District she will represent is the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis which has a large Somali-American population.

In other legislative primaries, Representatives Tom Hackbarth and Joe Mullery and Senator Sean Nienow were all defeated by challengers.  Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt comfortably won his primary challenge over Alan Duff with 72% of the vote.

There were four Republican candidates to succeed Congressman John Kline in Minnesota’s Second Congressional District.  Former radio talk show host Jason Lewis won the race with 49% of the vote followed by businesswoman Darlene Miller with 30.8% of the vote.  Lewis will face DFLer Angie Craig in the General Election.

Special Session Update

Governor Dayton and legislative leaders continue to discuss the possibility of a special legislative session to pass an omnibus tax bill and a bonding bill which were left unfinished from the 2016 legislative session.  Dayton is pressing legislative leaders for a decision soon warning that if discussions extend past August, there is little chance of a special session.  Dayton will be meeting on Friday, August 12 with all four legislative leaders to try to hammer out details for the special session.  Rank and file Republican legislators are not anxious to return to St. Paul for a special session.