BREAKING: DFL just lost a Minnesota State Senate seat...

[brooklynite]

Republican candidate Jason Rarick has won the special election to fill the open Minnesota Senate District 11 seat Tuesday night.

Rarick defeated DFL candidate Stu Lourey and Legal Marijuana Now candidate John "Sparky" Birrenbach.

Senate District 11 includes precincts throughout Carlton and Pine counties and parts of St. Louis and Kanabec counties. The seat was recently vacated by Tony Lourey after he joined the new cabinet of Gov. Tim Walz.

Results
John Birrenbach 2.02 percent (280 votes)
Jason Rarick 52.98 percent (7,332 votes)
Stu Lourey 44.83 percent (6,204 votes)
Write-in 0.17 percent (24 votes)

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/government-and-politics/4566997-jason-rarick-wins-minnesota-senate-district-11-special-election

The incumbent was appointed as Human Services Commissioner

[scarletwoman]

1. That's my district. I'm bummed - and yes, I voted today, of course. nt

[RandySF]

2. Heard that DFL nominated the 25-year old son of the previous incumbent

[dflprincess]

3. And the previous incumbent is the son of the

senator before him.

[frazzled]

5. The DFL was always great at running sons

I remember the 1998 gubernatorial election. At least four “sons” were vying for the Democratic nomination:

Skip Humphrey, son of former US VP Hubert Humphrey
Ted Mondale, son of former US VP Walter Mondale
Mike Freeman, son of former MN governor Orville Freeman
Mark Dayton ... well, a Dayton son ( which is a big deal if you lived in MN)

Humphrey won that primary, but lost to wackadoodle wrestler Jesse Ventura (a premonition of the kind of voter dementia that would elevate Trump to the presidency 18 years later).

(Dayton would win the governorship 12years later).

Minnesota still loves sons.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. There was a DFL primary, and the endorsed candidate lost the primary.

[AJT]

4. Why? I hope this doesn't become a trend.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. Because it's a purple district that got terrible turnout on a very short election cycle.

[theboss]

8. These weird special elections are always about ability to get your voters out

I'd be curious to see the results of the last "regular" election to see what the numbers look like.

For whatever reason, it's hard work getting Dem voters out. Sometimes, we just don't get the effort we need - especially in special elections. Maybe everyone is still recuperating from November, which was pretty amazing in fairness.

[bearsfootball516]

11. The conservative "base" is older, retired white voters who don't have anything else to do.

They sit at home all day and get angry watching Fox and Friends, Limbaugh, Tucker and Hannity, then go to the polls and vote because they literally have nothing else to do. The Democratic base is much younger and in elections that aren't high profile, can have trouble finding time to get to the polls.

[progree]

9. Ughh, so now it's 35 (R) to 32 (D) in the Senate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Senate

[bearsfootball516]

10. It happens, you aren't going to win 100 percent of your elections.

To answer those above asking how it happened. Rarick was an incumbent from the southern half of the district, so he already had infrastructure in place. Lourey would have been a third generation legacy in the seat, and legacies aren't something that a lot of people like right now. The district went double digits for Trump in 2016. It was extraordinarily low turnout because people are still fatigued from midterms. It was a sort of perfect storm for the seat to flip.