The death of Minneapolis DFL state Sen. Kari Dziedzic left a 33-33 tie in the Minnesota Senate but a special election in her district on Tuesday night changed that. DFLer Doron Clark won in the deep-blue Minneapolis district with 90 percent of the vote.
Clark was the DFL-endorsed candidate. He works in ethics and compliance at Medtronic graduated with degrees in religion and economics from Hamline University in 1996.
“I want to take our local stories to St. Paul to fight for our community’s needs. No one can ever fill Kari Dziedzic’s shoes, but I will do everything in my power to live up to her legacy,” Clark told MPR News ahead of the election.
He faced Republican Abigail Wolters, a software engineer and 2021 University of Minnesota graduate.
The question now is when Clark will be sworn in. When that happens, it will restore the one-vote edge for Democrats in the Senate and likely spell the end of a power-sharing deal between the caucuses when the chamber was divided 33 to 33for the opening weeks of the session.
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