The Minnesota Legislature will kick off the 2025 legislative session on Tuesday. Or maybe not. Tight margins and historic acrimony between the two parties has cast uncertainty over who’s going to be in charge for the next two years and whether legislators can do any business at all pending a pair of special elections slated for late January.

Hopes for bipartisan comity at the state Capitol this year — forced upon the Minnesota House by the voters, who sent 67 Democrats and 67 Republicans to the Capitol — are already crashing. House Democrats are mulling not showing up for the first two weeks of the legislative session to prevent the chamber from achieving a

Republicans argued Gov. Tim Walz called for a special election too early and asked for a halt ahead of the legislative session.

A lone seat could determine the balance of power in the Minnesota House. While a special election is currently scheduled for January 28 to fill that seat, Minnesota Republicans are suing over the timeline.