Rep. Roger Skraba talks ongoing turmoil in the Minnesota House

Kirsten Wisniewski | February 1, 2025

Despite beginning two weeks ago, the legislative session for the Minnesota State House of Representatives is at a standstill. The November 2024 election results showed a tie in the House, with each of the two major parties holding 67 seats, and party leaders were working toward a power-sharing agreement. Over the past month, that effort has ground to a halt.

The roots of the impasse

On Dec. 27, Curtis Johnson, elected to represent District 40B, announced that he would not contest the Ramsey County District Court ruling that he was not in compliance with residency requirements. That seat has yet to be filled, giving the House Republicans a 67-66 lead. Gov. Tim Walz is expected to call for a special election in February and set a date, likely for March. The district leans heavily in favor of the Democratic-Farmer-Laborer (DFL) party, and it is likely that the seat will be won by a DFL candidate, restoring the tie.

When the legislative session opened on Jan. 14, House DFL members chose to boycott the meeting. Secretary of State Steve Simon adjourned the session since there was no quorum or minimum number of members present in order to conduct business. While Republican lawmakers attempted in the following days to conduct the typical organization tasks at the start of a session, like electing a Speaker and finalizing committees, DFL representatives remained absent. Simon and the DFL leadership challenged the legality of the Republicans-only sessions, ultimately winning with the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Thus far, the DFL members of the House remain in a boycott, and Republicans remain unable to hold regular sessions without a quorum. Beyond the scrapping of a power-sharing agreement, one of the major sticking points for negotiations between GOP and DFL leaders is the seating of Brad Tabke.

Tabke was declared the winner of the very tight race for the 54A seat in November. However, his win was later contested when inconsistencies were brought to light in how some votes were processed in his Shakopee district. On Jan. 14, a Scott County judge ruled that Tabke had successfully won reelection. However, Minnesota House GOP leaders indicated they would be unwilling to seat Tabke. One result of this is that Gov. Tim Walz could call a special election for the seat, something that some Republican leaders expressed support for.

Over the past two weeks, party leaders have met numerous times to discuss terms for moving forward, but so far, no agreement has been announced. Each party has made legal complaints about the other’s actions.

Roger Skraba weighs in

Representative Roger Skraba was elected for a second term in House District 3A. He told WTIP that the current deadlock was filled with uncertainty for party membership. He said that at this time, he didn’t know when the House might resume their normal business. He added that he was hopeful that the House would return to the regular session soon enough that they would be able to avoid scheduling a special session.

Skraba and District 3 State Senator Grant Hauschild have spoken frequently about their commitment to bipartisan work. Skraba said that he and Hauschild, a DFLer, still have close contact despite the tension between the parties at the capital. He still hopes the parties can mend fences, saying he misses his DFL colleagues.

Despite losing two weeks so far in the House, Skraba is optimistic that they will still have a productive legislative session and address their legislative priorities before the end of the session.

He said, “I think we can get a majority of our work done before that if we all work together.”

As for how to move forward, Skraba said that with the 40B special election awaiting scheduling, he believes that Republicans should have control of the House, even if only temporarily. He said, “We should have some ruling authority right now because we are ahead. And then when the election comes, yes, and you win, no problem. Then we’re power sharing.”

Looking beyond the House

In the midst of turmoil at the state level, a slew of executive orders from President Donald Trump has caused confusion and legal challenges across the country. This has left state governments navigating how they can ensure that services their residents rely on are not interrupted. Skraba said that, at least so far, representatives in the Minnesota House have been focused on their own troubles.

He said,” We’ve been so mired in our own you, know, whatever you want to call it, self-pity, whatever. We’ve been so concentrated on ourselves that we haven’t looked out and said, Hey, how is this affecting? I know there’s talk, and there’s chatter about it.”

Skraba added that he was confident that the federal review included in several executive orders would yield fair results but acknowledged that the breadth of those federal actions was worrying to some of his constituents.

He said that he understood the aim of the orders to be an effort to root out waste, saying, “If you can even show that it helps people, they’ll say, Okay, leave it. That’s not what we want. What we want is we want the graft. We want the fraud. And it is there. We’re finding it out at state level, but how to get to it? You know, shooting a shotgun at a mosquito isn’t the best way to kill a mosquito, and that’s kind of what’s happening now. ”

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Representative Roger Skraba live on DayBreak. Audio of that interview is below.

Note: A technical issue caused a brief disruption to the broadcast so the recording is missing the very beginning of the interview, during which Representative Roger Skraba said that the status of leadership negotiation efforts remains unknown at this time, but that he hopes that the House will return to regular business soon enough that they are able to avoid scheduling a special session. Both Skraba and Sen. Grant Hauschild have spoken often about the need for bipartisan work. Kirsten Wisniewski asked Skraba how this time of partisanship at the capitol was impacting their relationship. He said that they remain committed to working closely. At this point in the interview, the normal broadcast resumed.