Election 2024: Success in school board campaigns, DFL retains majority in Senate, Minnesota House splits
In 2024, Minnesotans voted on many elected positions, including President, Senate, U.S. Congress, Minnesota House and school boards.
We encouraged locals to get involved in school board elections through recruiting, screening and endorsing candidates. We also encouraged locals to use PAC donations to communicate with voters about their endorsed candidates through targeted mail pieces, phone banks, canvassing and other voter outreach.
Our members rose to the challenge, with 33 locals choosing to go through the process—a new record for local participation in candidate screenings. Education Minnesota locals endorsed candidates who promised to deliver public schools that are safe, welcoming and effective for all students and educators. We are proud to report that about 75% of union-endorsed candidates were elected, with 70 wins in 95 races. Education Minnesota-endorsed candidates also significantly outperformed the Minnesota Parents Alliance-endorsed candidates in head-to-head races: our candidates won 72% of races.
This success would not have been possible without the hard work of our members, who worked together with community allies to make over 100,000 phone calls in October for local races and sent thousands of postcards to voters about endorsed school board candidates. We also exceeded our organizing goals with more than 550 worksite action leaders and 59 get-out-the-vote leaders.
In a statement released after the election, Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said, “Minnesotans trust their local educators—the people who know best where their local schools struggle and succeed—and voted for educator-endorsed candidates. The task ahead is to turn that support for the mission of public schools into policies that address the educator shortage and deliver the quality of education our all our students deserve, with no exceptions.”
Education Minnesota members also worked on 26 referendums to raise local revenue to support various functions of their local schools, including capital projects, buildings, operations and technology. A preliminary analysis shows voters approved just over half of the funding requests put to them—about the same percentage as in 2023.
In addition to school board elections, Minnesotans also voted for their state House members and in one special election for state Senate.
Because DFL candidate Ann Johnson Stewart won the special election triggered by Sen. Kelly Morrison’s resignation to run for Congress, the Minnesota DFL will retain control of the Minnesota Senate.
In the Minnesota House, the DFL lost three seats, bringing their 70-seat majority down to a 67-seat tie with Republicans, which means that neither party has a majority in the state House. This has only happened one other time in Minnesota history and presents unique challenges to determining which party will control the chamber. The last time this happened, the parties split leadership: House Republicans controlled the Speakership and House Democrats chaired the major committees. At the time of publication, we are unsure how chamber control will be structured.
Regardless of the changes we are seeing in the Legislature, Education Minnesota’s legislative agenda remains unchanged. We will continue to prioritize improvements to pay, pensions and health care and advocate for the schools our educators and students deserve. Our 2025 legislative agenda will be available soon on our website at educationminnesota.org/advocacy/at-the-legislature.
