Good morning. Flip the page to 2024.
Voters had a lot to say about who runs city hall and the school boards across Minnesota: Here’s the broad arc of what went down, via my MPR News colleagues. Lots more coverage on individual races, including some that are still to be called due to the need for extra ranked-choice voting tabulations. But here are some highlights:
Duluth has a new mayor after former state Sen. Roger Reinert defeated two-term incumbent Emily Larson. MPR’s Dan Kraker has the details on Reinert’s comfortable win in the gateway to Minnesota’s northeast.
St. Louis Park elected Minnesota’s first Somali mayor. Hibah Ansari of the Sahan Journal has the story on Nadia Mohamed’s victory. The 26-year-old has been on the city council. She’s believed to be the nation’s first Somali mayor put in the post directly by voters. In nearby Golden Valley, the mayoral race could be recount-bound with two candidates separated by 26 votes out of more than 5,600 cast.
St. Paul voters approved a sales tax increase to pay for parks and road repairs. The 1 percent bump will give the city one of Minnesota’s highest rates at the cash register, but officials expect it to generate $1 billion over its 20-year lifespan for backlogged projects. MPR’s Nina Moini reports the increase takes effect in April.
St. Paul is also on track to have its first all-woman council in the city’s history. Women won or were leading in all seven races, with a few yet to be fully decided. Sahan Journal’s Joey Peters on that plus a link to the still unfolding count.
In Minneapolis, the city council could take a swing further left. Council President Andrea Jenkins was behind after the first round of ranked-choice voting tallies. MinnPost’s Kyle Stokes has a rundown on the pattern. Go here for the latest results as more tabulation is done.
We’ll have more coverage throughout the day on air and online, and I’ll link to additional post-election stories tomorrow.
Now that 2023’s election is behind us, all eyes are on 2024. Political parties, pundits and armchair analysts are busy dissecting what results nationally mean for the big election now less than a year away. Abortion rights supporters notched more victories, as did backers of legal marijuana. Democrats held the governor’s office in Kentucky but Republicans kept one in Mississippi.
It’s again debate night, but the main contender will be a no-show. Five Republicans take the stage in Miami tonight for a GOP presidential candidate debate that again won’t feature front-runner Donald Trump, who is hosting a rally instead. NBCNews is the primary host. The debate starts at 7 p.m.
Is it flag or flayg? From the artistic to the simplistic to the sarcastic, the more than 2,600 submissions for a new Minnesota flag and seal run the gamut. MPR’s Dana Ferguson says the public should get its first glimpse of the entries later this week. The State Emblem Redesign Commission on Tuesday said it plans to launch a website where the public can view designs and comment on submissions. An early preview of the website showed several designs that included stars, evoking Minnesota’s nickname as the north star state, and loons as central images. One design played off the tendency of seasoned Minnesotans to draw out the pronunciation of the word "bag" as "bayg." | 