Frigid temperatures this weekend prompt cold weather advisories

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Democrats in the Minnesota House who have 

 are using tactics that lawmakers around the country have tried at least two dozen times before to thwart their opponents. It's not even a first for the state.

Minnesota Democrats are trying to prevent Republicans from taking advantage of a temporary one-seat majority caused by a vacancy. After a special election, the House likely will be tied at 67. On Friday, the 

Minnesota Supreme Court tossed the question of who controls the Minnesota House back to House leaders to figure it out.

, the issue was Republicans' desire to move the Minnesota Territory's capital from St. Paul to a new city, St. Peter, about 75 miles away. A Democratic lawmaker took physical possession of the bill and hid in a local hotel until it was too late to act on the measure.

Here are other notable moments of chaos and impasses in state legislatures over the past 170 years:

1863, Indiana: No legislature? No problem!

Democratic legislators weary of the Civil War 

 of the state militia from ardently pro-Union Republican Gov. Oliver Morton. Fellow Republicans thwarted the effort by heeding his call to bolt, closing down the state's General Assembly. Morton ran the state without a legislature through 1864, soliciting private and federal loans to finance state government and doling the funds out from a large safe in his office.

With several 1892 races in dispute, both Populists and Republicans claimed a majority in the state House. A month into lawmakers' annual session, Populist lawmakers locked themselves in, and Republicans out, overnight in the House chamber. The next day, the GOP House speaker 

 to break down a door so Republicans could go in and chase the Populists out.

The Kansas Supreme Court eventually settled the contested races in Republicans' favor, giving them the majority. The sledgehammer is on display in the Statehouse.

1924, Rhode Island: A filibuster, riot and gas attack

Democrats sought to end the grossly unequal representation in the state Legislature that had cemented Republican dominance and proposed holding a convention to revise the Rhode Island constitution for that purpose.

They hoped to slip their measure past the GOP's one-seat Senate majority by filibustering long enough that a few Republicans would fall asleep or leave. 

 and kept it up for more than five months.

In mid-June, a fight over who could preside over a daily Senate session touched off what accounts called a brief riot among senators. Two days later, a device left in the chamber released noxious gas, clearing it. Republicans eventually fled to a hotel in Massachusetts and stayed there the rest of the year.

1934, North Dakota: A ‘pretended session’

A federal jury convicted GOP Gov. William Langer of political corruption and he called a special legislative session to have lawmakers investigate his conviction. He was ousted from office but declared martial law.

The new governor, Republican Ole Olson, canceled the special session, but a quorum of the House convened anyway, having the first meetings in a new, still-unfinished Capitol. The Senate didn't have enough members to do business and after five days the House recessed and members went home.

A dozen liberal Democratic senators, known as 

 for their tactics in derailing legislation, objected to a plan to change the date of the state's GOP presidential primary in 1980 to help former Texas Gov. John Connally. The “Killer Bees” fled the state Capitol, bunked down in a staffer's garage and evaded capture by the Texas Rangers for four days. Their absence killed the plan.

Democrats used the same tactic in 2003 — House members went to Oklahoma and senators later fled to New Mexico — but failed to thwart a Republican congressional redistricting plan.

Similarly, in 2021 Democrats were initially successful in killing a restrictive voting measure by walking out just before a midnight deadline to pass it. They couldn't block it again during a special session when Republicans had law enforcement 

2011, Wisconsin: Democrats flee over union rights

Democratic state senators fled to Illinois, blocking a vote on GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s 

 of their union rights, while pro-union protesters descended on the state Capitol. The stalemate ended several weeks later after Republicans weakened their legislation.

The walkout inspired House Democrats in Indiana to 

 to win concessions from Republicans on education and labor bills.

2020-2021, New Hampshire: COVID-19-era rowdiness

In 2020, when the 400-member House met in a university athletic center because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some drank beer inside and defied a local mask mandate outside. A university trustee said they behaved like “juvenile delinquents.”

The following year, with the House meeting in a sports complex, 

 when an anti-abortion bill came up for a vote, protesting what they saw as a partisan manipulation of the calendar. That prompted the Republican House speaker to lock the doors to maintain a quorum.

2023, Nebraska: Filibustering nearly every bill

The Democratic minority brought the work of the officially nonpartisan, one-chamber Legislature to a near standstill by filibustering nearly every bill. The senator leading the 

 sought to kill even bills she supported, aiming to tank a Republican-led effort to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Lawmakers eventually voted to ban surgeries and greatly restrict prescribing puberty blockers and hormones but also added a ban on abortion at 12 weeks to their bill. The measure passed and was signed by the governor.

Since the early 1970s, Oregon legislators in both parties have boycotted daily sessions to halt work in one or both chambers. After a series of GOP walkouts, voters in 2022 approved an amendment to the state constitution barring lawmakers from seeking reelection if they have more than 10 unexcused absences in a single annual legislative session.

Then, in 2023, Republican senators staged the walkout of all walkouts: a six-week boycott over measures protecting abortion rights and gender-affirming care for transgender people. Ten 

A Democrat's decision to join minority Republicans in skipping a daily House session 

 to a post-election, lame-duck session in December.

Democratic leaders couldn't act on measures to ban ghost guns or protect the health data of abortion patients, or on funding items sought by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The chaos highlighted broader divisions among Democrats after elections that saw the GOP recapture a House majority.

Homepage

The Associated Press

Author

Democrats in the Minnesota House who have boycotted daily sessions are using tactics that lawmakers elsewhere have tried dozens of times in seeking to thwart their opponents. Lawmakers have created chaos with boycotts or walk-outs at least two dozen times in the past. During the Civil War in 1863, a Unionist governor thwarted Democratic opponents by having fellow Republicans in the legislature bolt.

Democrats' Minnesota House boycott echoes earlier walkouts in other states

Go Deeper.

Like this?