Top Minnesota House Republican urges colleagues to refuse to seat incoming lawmaker
State Rep. Lisa Demuth, who leads Minnesota House Republicans, strongly suggested that her caucus will refuse to seat Rep.-elect Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, who won a contested election by 14 votes after 20 votes were improperly discarded.
The election case is before a judge, but Demuth told Al Travis, a conservative podcast host, that Republicans will ignore a judge’s ruling and refuse to seat Tabke, forcing Gov. Tim Walz to call a special election in district 54A.
“I am hopeful the courts will decide that way,” she said. “If they don’t, we are ready to go, until there is a new election, and it is truly decided, a fair election, and integrity there, we should not be seating that representative.”
The Minnesota Constitution grants the two legislative chambers the power to seat members and rule on election contests, so House Republicans are empowered to ignore the judiciary.
The conflict over the south metro district, where Tabke narrowly beat Republican Aaron Paul, is a significant piece of a broader fight for control of the House, where Republicans have 67 members, and Democrats 66.
The legislative session begins Jan. 14.
ALSO READ: Trump intel advisor Devin Nunes still dismisses Russian election meddling as a 'hoax'
On Jan. 28, a special election in another district — 40B — is expected to give the Democratic caucus another member. That special election is the result of DFL Rep.-elect Curtis Johnson resigning last month when a district judge ruled he did not live in the district he intended to represent.
Republicans plan to use their temporary one-vote advantage next week to elect Demuth speaker, assign their members as committee chairs and — based on comments from Demuth and others in the caucus — refuse to seat Tabke.
“It would be outrageous not to seat a member who won an election and the first of its kind of abuse of power in Minnesota’s history,” DFL House leader Rep. Melissa Hortman said.
Democrats say they’ll walk out of the House and deny the Republicans the necessary 68 members for a quorum, without which the House cannot conduct business. Republicans say a majority of the chamber would be 67 out of the current 133 members. The dispute will be decided on the opening day of the session by the presiding officer on day one, Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat and former House member.
A decision in the Tabke case is expected imminently. The case centers around 20 ballots that went missing, even as Tabke won by just 14 votes. During a trial last month, six of the 20 voters whose ballots are believed to have been lost testified that they voted to reelect the Shakopee representative.