Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth reflects on 2025 session, historic speakership

Yahoo

13-06-2025

Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth hands off a booklet of revisions from the Minnesota Senate near the end of a late-night special legislative session Monday, June 9, 2025 at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, was elected to the Legislature in 2018, and she's served as the House's Republican leader since 2023.
Before Demuth could even grasp the speaker's gavel, the 2025 legislative session had a rancorous start. A judge ruled one of the newly elected Democrats ineligible for office because he didn't live in the district, and Republicans sought to use a temporary 67-66 advantage to win full control by threatening to unseat another Democrat, Rep. Brad Tabke, who won a contested race.
To prevent this usurpation, Democrats boycotted the session for three weeks and litigation ensued until the two sides came to an agreement: seat Tabke and Republicans could claim the speakership for the whole two-year session.
Demuth won the speakership under extraordinary circumstances, and she used her caucus' power of exactly half of the House to force the DFL to roll back one of their signature policies — state-subsidized health insurance for undocumented immigrants. House Republicans also blocked numerous tax increases proposed by the DFL.
Long negotiations in the split Legislature caused the session to go into overtime, and lawmakers wrapped up their work and passed a $66 billion budget in a one-day special session on Monday.
The Reformer interviewed Demuth this week and asked her to reflect on the unorthodox session.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Because of the special session and so many things, it has been full of learning all the way through. There hasn't been a time that I'm like, 'Okay, I got this.' Things kept changing, and the historical nature of a tie for the second time in history.
When the Democrats decided to finally show up, I was elected as speaker. I don't usually go down this road, but there was a historical piece: me being elected speaker as the first Republican woman to ever hold that role. But not just that, the first person of color to hold that for either party ever in the chamber.
But unfortunately, our Democrat colleagues chose not to appreciate the historical nature of that and voted against me, even though I still became the speaker for two years. They literally voted against the first person of color to ever hold that office, even though they say that is a very important thing.
Watching us come together and being able to, as I mentioned, do good work before the deadline. Democrats and Republicans coming together, making sure that our state has what it needs to be safe and to make some meaningful changes that will strengthen that going forward.
We really tried to attack the overspending that we saw over the last two years, trying to get ahold of the state budget, not wanting Minnesota families to experience higher costs. We heard Democrats say on the last day of special session, 'We needed more revenue.' That translates to me that they missed the opportunity to raise taxes like they wanted to.
The other thing is, again, I was sworn in as speaker. Being the first Black speaker ever, I was also sworn in by Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, who is the first Black president of the Senate. I think that moment was very historic.
I appreciate you saying that I've emphasized merit, and I will always do that. When I'm reflecting over this session and looking at the historical things that have happened, that is a historical piece. I'm looking forward to when people are no longer surprised by the fact that a woman is the first whatever or the first person of color or Black person being where I am.
But somebody needed to start it, and in this case — the first Republican woman and the first Black speaker, Republican or Democrat — I have set that standard now, and I'm looking forward to others following after me. You're right. I don't lead with that.
My Democrat colleagues always focus on race or gender, and in this case they chose to completely ignore it because I'm a Republican.
We really rejected the tax increases that would cover Minnesota families overall. Yes, there is a tax increase from 10% to 15% on cannabis. But Democrats wanted a fifth income tax tier. The governor had pushed for new sales taxes on services that were never taxed before. We really held the line on that.
On data centers, we were able to secure a longer timeline for their sales tax exemption. That is a true sign of a compromise. Perfect? Probably not, but a true sign of a compromise is that no one side gets absolutely everything they wanted.
I always have to laugh when I get that question. If you would have asked me back in the early 2000s if I would ever think about running for school board, I would have told you I haven't thought about it. Yet I did run for school board.
I remember when I was asked about running for the Legislature, I had never thought about it.
And so I'm telling you, I'm not saying I'm running for governor at all. I'm not telling you that, but I would have been foolish to have said 'no' to anything in the past. So I'm not telling you yes.
Obviously, we're looking at the 2026 election and so I'll be doing a lot of heavy work. Even though the tie has been great for Republicans in the House, we want an outright majority. That has been our laser focus for quite a while.
I'm also looking forward to spending time with family and decompressing a little bit, but I'm not sure when that gets to start.