2016 Minnesota Senate election


The 2016 Minnesota Senate election was held in the U.S. state of Minnesota on November 8, 2016, to elect members to the Senate of the 90th and 91st Minnesota Legislatures. A primary election was held in several districts on August 9, 2016. The election coincided with the election of the other house of the Legislature, the House of Representatives.
The Republican Party of Minnesota won a majority of seats, defeating the majority of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. This was the first election for the DFL since it won a majority of seats in the 2012 election, after losing a majority to the Republicans in the 2010 election. The new Legislature convened on January 3, 2017.

Background

The last election resulted in the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party winning a majority of seats, after losing a majority to the Republican Party of Minnesota only two years earlier in the previous election. This resulted in the Republicans losing the only majority they have had since the return of partisan elections to the Senate in 1976. In conjunction with the result of the House election, it also resulted in the return of all-DFL control of the Legislature since 2010 as well as the return of all-party and all-DFL control of the Legislature and governorship since 1990, which ended with the election of a Republican majority to the House in 2014.

Electoral system

The 67 members of the Senate were elected from single-member districts via first-past-the-post voting for four-year terms. Contested nominations of the DFL and Republican parties for each district were determined by an open primary election. Minor party and independent candidates were nominated by petition. Write-in candidates must have filed a request with the secretary of state's office for votes for them to have been counted.

Retiring members

DFL

According to MinnPost, the Star Tribune, the Pioneer Press, and MPR News, a total of 19 districts were competitive. MinnPost considered 12 districts to be competitive—10 of which were held by the DFL and two by the Republicans, the Star Tribune 19—13 of which were held by the DFL and six by the Republicans, the Pioneer Press six—five of which were held by the DFL and one by the Republicans, and MPR News nine—seven of which were held by the DFL and two by the Republicans.
DistrictIncumbentPartyFirst
elected		2012
result		MinnPost
Star Tribune
Pioneer Press
MPR News
Result
1LeRoy Stumpf‡DFL198260.59%Republican gain
2Rod SkoeDFL200254.92%Republican gain
4Kent EkenDFL201252.17%Hold
14John Pederson‡Republican201052.47%Hold
17Lyle KoenenDFL2012*55.40%Republican gain
20Kevin DahleDFL2008*, 2012†50.02%Republican gain
21Matt SchmitDFL201252.43%Republican gain
24Vicki JensenDFL201252.60%Republican gain
26Carla NelsonRepublican201055.62%Hold
32Sean Nienow§Republican2002, 2010†54.25%Hold
36John HoffmanDFL201253.10%Hold
37Alice Johnson‡DFL201253.23%Hold
44Terri Bonoff‡DFL2005*55.81%Republican gain
48David HannRepublican200251.32%DFL gain
49Melisa FranzenDFL201252.74%Hold
53Susan KentDFL201252.13%Hold
56Dan HallRepublican201053.92%Hold
57Greg ClausenDFL201254.09%Hold
58Dave Thompson‡Republican201057.60%DFL gain

Primary elections results

Opinion polling

Results

District results

Withdrawn candidates--

Seats changing parties

OWIKI.org. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.