Cozen O’Connor is pleased to announce the promotion of six members to shareholder: Benjamin Bomrind, Patrick Carey, Sarah Krissoff, Jeffrey Monhait, Michael O’Donnell, and Tamar Wise. The election of these six new shareholders was voted on during the firm’s recent All Attorney Summit in Orlando, Florida.
November 4th was the Special Election date to fill the Minnesota Senate seats left vacant by the death of former Senate Bruce Andeson (R-Buffalo) and by the resignation of Senator Nicole Mitchell (DFL-Woodbury) following a felony conviction for burglary. As expected, Republican Michael Holstrom won the race in Senate District 29, receiving 62% of the vote and beating DFL candidate Louis McNutt. Holstrom ran on right to life, fiscal responsibility, public safety, protecting the 2nd Amendment, and government transparency.
In Senate District 47, Representative Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger (DFL-Woodbury) won with 62% of the vote against Republican Dwight Dorau. With her move to the State Senate, she will resign from her House seat and there will be a special election to fill the vacancy. It is expected the seat will be won by a DFL candidate, which means the tied House will likely remain tied in the 2026 Legislative Session.
The State Senate has now returned to full capacity with 34 DFL seats and 33 GOP seats following both special elections.
The Mayor and all 13 City Council seats were up for election in Minneapolis on Tuesday and was a contest between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party. Moderate Mayor Jacob Frey was seeking a third term and was looking to bust the 9-4 progressive majority on the Council that overrode several mayoral vetoes.
Minneapolis uses Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in all municipal elections so voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives majority support on the first ballot, tallying goes into multiple rounds until a candidate has received 50% of the votes. This occurred in the mayoral race, the City Council race in Ward 5, and three races for Minneapolis Park Board.
Mayor Frey faced a handful of challengers but three emerged as the most formidable: attorney Jazz Hampton, Rev. Dr. Dewayne Davis, and Democratic-Socialist State Senator Omar Fateh. These three candidates banned together in an effort to leverage RCV in a “Don’t Rank Frey” campaign in hopes voters would keep Frey off their ballot of preferred candidates.
Frey dashed the hopes of his opponents shortly after polls closed when he outperformed his toughest challenger, Sen. Fateh, by 10-points. Balloting went into a second round and Frey was officially declared the winner midday on Wednesday.
With all 13 council seats up for election on Tuesday, moderate factions within the Democratic Party sought to break the existing nine member progressive majority on the City Council. Alternately, the progressive wing sought to protect their veto-proof majority against incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey.
The final outcome for City Council had the moderates picking up two progressive seats with victories for Shaffer and Whiting, eliminating the liberals’ ability to override the Mayor. As a result, Mayor Frey will have more leverage on issues with the Council.
Final results are as follows:
The Mayor was the only official up for election in Saint Paul. The top two contenders for Saint Paul Mayor were incumbent Mayor Melvin Carter and State Representative Kaohly Her. Her was late to the Mayor’s race, announcing her candidacy in August. She seized on voters frustrations with rising property taxes and stagnant economic development in the City’s downtown.
Saint Paul also uses RCV and, after the first round of tabulation, Carter received nearly 41% of votes compared to 38% for Her. Lesser-known candidates Yan Chen and Mike Hilborn received 10% and 9%, respectively. When the city tabulated second-choice votes late Tuesday night, Her emerged with 51.5% of the votes, securing a victory in a stunning upset.
Her will make history by being the first woman and first person of Hmong heritage to serve as the Mayor of Saint Paul. She comes to her new position having served in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2018 and has experience in the finance and investment sector, where she spent 15 years prior to a run for office. Based on Representative Her’s time at the State Legislature, we can expect her approach to mayor to be collaborative and stakeholder-focused. Mayor-elect Her will now need to resign her Minnesota House seat, triggering a special election to be called to fill her vacancy.
Governor Tim Walz will call special elections to fill two House seats vacated by Hemmingsen-Jaeger and Her. Both will likely take place sometime in January so that House Democrats are at full complement when the 2026 Legislative Session starts on February 17.
Government Relations Associate
Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, an affiliate of the international law firm Cozen O’Connor, is a bipartisan government relations practice representing clients before the federal government and in cities and states throughout the country. With offices in Washington D.C., Richmond, Albany, New York City, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Chicago, and Santa Monica, the firm’s public strategies professionals offer a full complement of government affairs services, including legislative and executive branch advocacy, policy analysis, assistance with government procurement and funding programs, and crisis management. Its client base spans multiple industries, including healthcare, transportation, hospitality, education, construction, energy, real estate, entertainment, financial services, and insurance.
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