St. Paul, Minn. (AP) – Democrats in the Minnesota House, who have boycotted daily sessions, are employing tactics that lawmakers across the country have tried at least two dozen times to thwart their opponents. It’s not even a first for the state.
Minnesota Democrats are trying to stop Republicans from using a transient one-seat majority caused by a vacancy in a Democratic seat and have even asked the Supreme Court to intervene. After a special election, the House will likely be tied at 67. The Senate is temporarily tied at 33, partly because of a vacancy in a Democratic district.
In 1857, the issue was the Republicans’ desire to move the territory’s capital from St. Paul to a novel town, St. Peter, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) away. A Democratic lawmaker took physical possession of the bill and hid out in a local hotel until it was too delayed to act on the measure.
Here are other notable moments of chaos and strain in state legislatures over the past 170 years:
1863, Indiana: No legislature? No problem!
Democratic lawmakers weary of the Civil War sought to seize control of the state militia from ardently pro-Republican Gov. Oliver Morton. Fellow Republicans thwarted the effort by heeding his call for Bolt to shut down the state’s General Assembly. Morton ran the state without a legislature until 1864, securing private and federal loans to finance state government, approving the funds from a gigantic sheltered in his office.
1893, Kansas: The “Legislative War”
With several contested races in 1892, both Populists and Republicans claimed a majority in the State House. A month after the legislature’s annual meeting, populist lawmakers locked themselves in the House chamber overnight and Republicans. The next day, the GOP House speaker used a sledgehammer to destroy a door so Republicans could pursue the Populists.
The Kansas Supreme Court ultimately threw out the contested races in Republicans’ favor, giving them the majority. The sledgehammer is on display at the Statehouse.
1924, Rhode Island: A filibuster, insurrection and gas attack
Democrats sought to end the grossly unequal representation in the state legislature that had cemented Republican dominance and proposed holding a convention to revise the Rhode Island Constitution for that purpose.
They hoped to push their measure past the GOP Senate majority by filibustering long enough that some Republicans would fall asleep or leave. They started in January and held it off for more than five months.
In mid-June, a fight over who could preside over a daily session in the Senate touched on what accounts described as a brief turmoil among senators. Two days later, a device in the chamber released and dissolved noxious gas. The Republicans eventually fled to a hotel in Massachusetts and stayed there the rest of the year.
1934, North Dakota: A “Fake Session”
A federal jury convicted GOP Gov. William Langer of political corruption and he called a special legislative session to let lawmakers investigate his conviction. He was ousted from office but declared martial law.
The novel governor, Republican Ole Olson, canceled the special session, but a quorum of the House was still called, his first sessions in a novel, unfinished Capitol. The Senate did not have enough members to conduct business and after five days the house was broken into and members went home.
1979, Texas: The ‘Killer Bees’
A dozen liberal Democratic senators, known as “killer bees” for their tactics in derailing legislation, opposed a plan to change the date of the state’s 1980 GOP presidential primary to lend a hand former Texas Gov. John Connally. The “killer bees” escaped the state Capitol, climbed into an employee’s garage and were discovered trapped by the Texas Rangers for four days. Her absence killed the plan.
Democrats used the same tactic in 2003 – House members went to Oklahoma and senators later fled to New Mexico – but failed to thwart a Republican congressional plan.
Similarly, in 2021, Democrats were initially successful in killing a restrictive voting measure by falling low of a midnight deadline to pass it. They failed to block it again during a special session when Republicans brought them back to Washington after flying them.
2011, Wisconsin: Democrats flee union rights
Democratic state senators fled to Illinois and blocked a vote on GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to strip most public workers of their union rights, while pro-union protesters descended on the state Capitol. The standoff ended a few weeks later after Republicans weakened their legislation.
The strike inspired House Democrats in Indiana to also flee to Illinois to win concessions from Republicans on education and jobs bills.
2020-2021, New Hampshire: Covid-19 Era Rowdiness
When the 400-member house met at a university sports center in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, some drank beer inside and defied a local mask mandate outside. A university trustee said they behaved like “juvenile delinquents”.
The following year, Democrats walked out of the House meeting at a sports complicated as an anti-abortion bill came up for a vote, protesting what they saw as partisan manipulation of the calendar. That prompted the Republican House speaker to lock the doors to maintain a quorum.
2023, Nebraska: Filibustering almost every bill
The Democratic minority brought the work of the officially nonpartisan, unicameral legislature to near gridlock by filibustering almost every bill. The senator who led the epic filibuster tried to kill even bills she supported, targeting a Republican-led effort to ban gender affirming care for transgender minors.
Lawmakers ultimately voted to ban surgeries and significantly restrict the prescription of puberty blockers and hormones, but also added a ban on abortion after 12 weeks to their bill. The measure passed and was signed by the governor.
2023, Oregon: A record GOP boycott
Since the early 1970s, Oregon legislators of both parties have boycotted daily sessions to halt work in one or both chambers. After a series of GOP strikes, voters in 2022 approved an amendment to the state constitution barring lawmakers from seeking re-election if they have failed to vote more than 10 times in a single annual legislative session.
In 2023, Republican senators staged the strike of all strikes: a six-week boycott over measures protecting abortion rights and gender-affirming care for transgender people. Ten were removed from the ballot in 2024.
2024, Michigan: Defect Dooms session
A Democrat’s decision to join minority Republicans in skipping a daily House session forced an end to a lame-duck session after the December election.
Democratic leaders failed to act on measures to ban ghost guns or protect the health records of abortion patients, or on funding items sought by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The chaos highlighted broader divisions among Democrats after elections in which the GOP regained a House majority.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press Writers Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wis.; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; and Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, also contributed.
