It still wasn’t clear late Tuesday night whether the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party had maintained control of Minnesota state government as vote counting for some races for the state House of Representatives continued. However, early results showed the DFL managed to keep its one-seat majority in the Senate by winning a special election in District 45. DFLer Ann Johnson Stewart held 52% of the vote to Republican Kathleen Garner’s 48% in that west metro district’s election. The Senate GOP campaign committee conceded defeat in a late Tuesday statement.  earlier this year. Typically Senate elections are held every four years, but there was a special election for the west metro Senate seat left vacant by the departure of Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, after she stepped down to run for the 3rd Congressional District. House races All 134 of the seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives are up for election this year, and if Republicans gain a handful, Democrats, who control the Senate, House and governor’s office, will no longer be able to pursue their agenda with minimal resistance. In the most recent legislative session, the DFL held a 70-64 majority over Republicans in the Minnesota House. After recent retirements, the balance is 68-63. If the GOP wants to wrest control, they’ll have to reach a minimum of 68 seats. Only a little more than a dozen of the seats on the ballot this year were seen by political strategists and observers as seriously competitive. Those contests were concentrated in districts in the Twin Cities metro suburbs, northeast Minnesota’s Iron Range, and in a few rural regional centers. Competitive races Some of the closest races are expected to be in the Twin Cities suburbs. Two representatives in south and east metro districts — Rep. Mark Wiens, R-Lake Elmo, won by a little over 100 votes in 2022 and Rep. Shane Hudella, R-Hastings, won by a few hundred votes that same year. Neither ran for reelection. In Wiens’ District, DFLer Lucia Wroblewski is running against Republican Wayne Johnson, though there were no results yet late Tuesday. In Hudella’s district results continued to come in late Tuesday for DFLer Jen Fox and Republican Tom Dippel. Two rural Minnesota districts currently held by DFLers that could flip to the GOP are an Iron Range district held by outgoing Rep. Dave Lislegard, DFL-Aurora, and a southeastern Minnesota district held by now-retired Rep. Gene Pelowski of Winona. Results were incomplete late Tuesday. There are other Republican-held districts in northern Minnesota that Democrats hope to flip. One is a rural Duluth-area district held by Republican Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, who ousted four-decade Rep. Mary Murphy by 33 votes two years ago. Results were incomplete late Tuesday. Campaign issues After winning the “trifecta” in 2022, DFLers put strong abortion rights protections in state law, created a paid family and medical leave program, enacted universal free school meals, made public college free for families earning less than $80,000 a year and legalized recreational marijuana. They also used most of the historic $17.5 billion budget surplus and increased government spending by nearly 40% over the next two years to pay for new programs and boost funding for other areas, like education and child tax credits. Republicans hope to wrest back control of at least one chamber in the legislature to bring what they call balance to state government. They campaigned against DFLers expansion of state spending and railed against new taxes, arguing the surplus should have been used to deliver tax relief. DFL spending of the surplus was a major theme in House Republican campaigns. But Democrats shot back that either party would have used the surplus, and that DFLers spent it in ways they said helped Minnesotans who needed it most. Related Articles Elections | Live election results: 2024 Minnesota and St. Paul-area races Elections | Should students be in school on Election Day? Largest Minnesota districts are split Elections | 1.1 million Minnesotans have already voted. Here’s how you can before polls close 8 p.m. Tuesday Elections | Carolina Lopez: Salute frontline heroes of our democratic republic Elections | Ross Raihala: How Aaron Rupar went from City Pages blogger to professional Trump watcher