Republicans flip Minnesota State Senate seat

Minnesota has very lenient election laws and a consistently high voter turnout. This is due in part to its same day voter registration laws; previously unregistered voters can register on election day, at their polls, with evidence of residency.

Minnesota has a high rate of progressives and a large LGBT community with powerful positions who vote leftest just about every time.

The state now has a Somali Muslim woman in Congress, Ilhan Omar, who hates Trump and supposedly in 2009, married her brother and subsequently divorced.

Omar with anti-Semite and alleged Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer Linda Sarsour on  Omar’s first official day in Congress.

This is why it is a great feat that a Republican was just elected to the state legislature although the state has been drifting red for sometime. 

•    Jason Rarick (R) defeated Stu Lourey (D) and Legal Marijuana Now candidate John Birrenbach to flip control of the District 11 seat in the Minnesota State Senate in a special election on Tuesday. Rarick's win gives Republicans a three-seat majority in the Minnesota State Senate, up from the 34-33 majority they held before state Sen. Tony Lourey (D) resigned in January. Tony Lourey, who is Stu Lourey's father, resigned after newly-elected Governor Tim Walz (D) appointed him to serve as state human services commissioner, prompting the special election.

•    Rarick’s win represents the only state legislative special election so far in 2019 that has flipped from one party to the other. With all precincts reporting, Rarick received 52 percent of the vote to Lourey's 46 percent. This state Senate seat had been held by Lourey’s father and grandmother, both Democrats, since 1997. Donald Trump won the district in the 2016 presidential election by 13 points.

•    Minnesota is the only state in the U.S. with a divided legislature, meaning Republicans hold a majority in one chamber and Democrats, in the other. The state’s governor is also a Democrat. [Ballotpedia]