Minn. Secretary of State Finalizes Election Results

The Minnesota Secretary of State posted final election results yesterday and there are some interesting things for credit unions to take note going into the 2021 federal and state legislative sessions that will start in January.

Minnesota U.S. Senate Race 
The U.S. Senate race in Minnesota saw incumbent Tina Smith (DFL) pull out a five-point win over former U.S. Representative Jason Lewis (R), 48% to 43%. Having been appointed to the seat and winning the 2018 special election to finish out the remainder of the previous term from the early resignation of Al Franken, Senator Smith now will serve a full 6-year term. CUNA and MnCUN partnered with two credit unions on a partisan communication in support of Senator Smith’s reelection, spending about $250,000.  

Nationally, the Senate is currently still held by Republicans by a slim margin but there are two runoff elections in Georgia on December 5 that will decide final control of the Chamber.
 
Minnesota Congressional Races
In the Minnesota Congressional races, longtime DFL incumbent Colin Peterson lost his bid for a 16th term, losing to former state Senator and Lt. Governor Michelle Fischbach 53% to 40%. All other incumbents won their respective races, meaning the partisan split of the Congressional contingent will now be 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans.

Overall, CUNA’s federal PAC, CULAC, spent over $7 million supporting credit union champions in Congress.
 
State Senate 
In the state Senate, the GOP, holding a 35-32 majority, were able to hold off the DFL and will head into January with a razor thin 34-33 majority. Three GOP seats and two DFL seats flipped party control to account for the current makeup. In the state House, the Democratic majority was whittled down from a 75-59 majority to a 70-64 edge. Republicans were able to build on their more recent successes in exurban and rural areas, flipping five seats to their control.

In the state House and Senate elections, MnCUN’s political action committee, CUPAC, supported a total of 70 candidates for office, with 66 of them winning election.
 
The partisan breakdown of the federal elections will likely have some impacts for credit unions, specifically:

• Nomination of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director
• Change in leadership at NCUA
• Return to legislative activity with potential data security and privacy legislation

 
At the state level, MnCUN’s analysis of the results will potentially lead to:

• Affecting Governor Walz’s calculus on nominating a new Department of Commerce Director
• Potentially signaling the end of legislative authorization of Gubernatorial emergency executive authority
• While unlikely to garner widespread support, with such large projected deficits, increased scrutiny of tax expenditures could lead to attacks on credit union corporate tax exemption to raise revenue from individual legislators
• Redistricting will likely take place in the courts

 
The Network will be hosting a more in-depth recap and analysis on a webinar at 9 AM on Thursday 11/12.