diagram of minnesota house seats

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In the end, it wasn’t even close.

The Minnesota DFL needed to flip 11 Republican-held Minnesota House seats into their column to take control of the chamber. After the votes were counted on Tuesday night, they had picked up 18 — while managing not to lose a single seat of their own. (As of press time, results for District 27B, near Austin, were still pending with one precinct remaining to count, but DFL incumbent Rep. Jeanne Poppe had a comfortable lead.)

So where did the DFL make its gains? Largely in the outer-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities metro.

In the diagram below, House districts are given equal size but organized geographically similarly to how they are arranged in the state. Districts that are shaded a darker blue are the ones that flipped from GOP to DFL control. You can click a district to get more detailed results from our Election Results Dashboard.

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Greater Minnesota Metro
2A
1A 1B 2B 6A 6B 3B 3A
4A 4B 5A 5B 7B 7A
8A 8B 10A 10B 11A 30A 30B 35A 35B 31B 32B
12A 9A 9B 15B 11B 34A 36A 36B 37A 37B 38A 38B 39A
12B 13A 13B 15A 32A 34B 40A 40B 41A 41B 42A 42B 43A
17A 17B 14A 14B 31A 44A 45A 45B 59A 60A 66A 66B 67A 43B 39B
16A 18A 29A 29B 44B 46A 59B 60B 64A 65A 67B 53A
16B 18B 47A 33A 33B 46B 61A 62A 63A 65B 53B 54B
19A 20A 20B 58B 21A 21B 48A 49A 61B 62B 63B 64B 52A 54A
22B 19B 23B 25B 24B 25A 28A 47B 48B 49B 50A 50B 51A 51B 52B
22A 23A 24A 26B 26A 27A 27B 28B 55A 55B 56A 56B 58A 57A 57B

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Twelve of the seats won from Republicans by the DFL were the so-called “Hillary 12” — suburban districts that, in 2016, voted for Hillary Clinton for president while sending a Republican to the state House. Those districts were: 49A (Edina), 44A (Plymouth), 48B (Eden Prairie), 33B (Chanhassen), 34B (Maple Grove), 42A (Shoreview), 52B (Inver Grove Heights), 53B (Woodbury), 54A (South St. Paul), 56A (Savage), 56B (Lakeville) and 57B (Rosemount).

Rounding out DFL gains in the metro were District 36A, an open-seat contest created by the retirement of Republican Rep. Mark Uglem; District 38B, the seat formerly held by Republican Rep. Matt Dean before he left it to pursue a run for governor; 39B, the Stillwater district where challenger Shelly Christensen edged out longtime GOP incumbent Kathy Lohmer by 137 votes; and 55A in Shakopee, a seat the became competitive for the DFL after its Republican incumbent, Rep. Bob Loonan, lost a primary from his right from Erik Mortensen.

The DFL also picked up two seats in Greater Minnesota. That they won District 14B was perhaps of little surprise: the Republican incumbent, Rep. Jim Knoblach, ended his campaign in September amid allegations of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, in District 5A, encompassing Bemidji and parts east, DFLer John Persell beat out GOP incumbent Matt Bliss — but with a razor-thin margin of 4 votes.

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3 Comments

    1. Per secretary of state website current count is 8452 vs 8444. A difference of 8 (0.04%) with 7 write-in votes.

      Per SOS website they estimate 1 in every 2000 to 3000 may not be counted due to a ballot being marked in a way that cannot be read by the machine. There are also no automatic recounts. Matt Bliss would have to request a publicly funded recount.

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