Minnesota House DFL leaders outline priorities

Good morning. On Tuesday night all across Minnesota we heard a loud and clear message from voters who rejected the governance of Donald Trump and the Republican Party and elected the largest DFL majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives, largest majority of any size since the 2008 election. And last night the House caucus elected the leadership team that's standing in front of you. We are excited to deliver for Minnesotans in this legislative session. We know that Minnesotans all across the state are struggling with rising costs caused by Donald Trump and Republican governance, and we are ready to take action. This legislative session, we will be laser-focused on making life more affordable for Minnesotans, particularly in the areas of health care, child care, and housing. We will take aggressive action to deliver for Minnesotans. That's what they expect, and we are prepared to do that. And with that, I'm happy to turn it over to our newly elected majority leader, Jamie Long. Well, first, a big congratulations to Speaker-designate Zach Stevenson. We heard loud and clear from Minnesotans this cycle that they are struggling, that they are dealing with these tariffs and high costs that have been brought on by the Trump administration, and they are asking for our help, and Democrats are ready to deliver with the biggest majorities that we have seen in decades. We are aligned. With the Senate and with Governor Amy Klobuchar on the top priorities that we want to get done this session, Senator Liz Bolden and I put out an op-ed in August that talked about some of the vision and the hope that we want to get done this session. And you'll notice that the top three affordability items that we identified in that op-ed were child care, health care, and housing, and those are the top three priorities that are currently on. Newly elected Governor Klobuchar's transition website. So I think we are pointing in the right direction. We have heard Minnesotans. We know they need help, and we're ready to deliver. With that, I'll turn it over to our newly elected Whip Representative Sandstrom. Good morning. My name is Sam Santa Mora. I represent District 63A in South Minneapolis, and I'm excited to be a fresh face on this team. This past year in the dark of winter, Minnesotans showed up with love, care, and kindness and bravery for their neighbors, unleashing a ripple of compassion and kindness that started the blue wave. On Tuesday, Minnesotans again showed up with love, care, and bravery and cast their votes for the largest DFL majority we have seen in almost 20 years. Elections are ultimately about which party has the better offer. And on Tuesday, voters across the country and here in Minnesota voted for the better offer the Democrats presented. We have a responsibility to now deliver on that offer we made to voters. Together with Governor-Elect Klobuchar and the Minnesota Senate, we can ensure that Minnesota continues to be an antidote to the MAGA agenda, paving the way for what comes after. The Trump decade is officially over. We invite all Minnesotans, those who voted for us and those who didn't, to help us build what comes next. Now is the time for unrigging our economy, investing in our kids, fixing our broken health care system, and saving our planet and our people from the ills of big tech. I'm excited to get to work on behalf of this incredible caucus, and I'm honored that they have elected me as majority whip. Thank you. Look, I mean, the DFL is a big tent and there's a variety of different perspectives. And frankly, that's a strength of our party is that we bring a lot of different perspectives to the table. But I think as you heard Majority Leader Long say, there's great alignment between the House, the Senate and the governor on focusing on those affordability issues, on driving down costs for Minnesotans, particularly in the areas of health care, housing and child care. I think that we're going to work really well together. You know my first job out of college was working for Governor Amy Klobuchar on her first U.S. Senate campaign, so we have a long history of working well together. Look, I think that there's actually a lot of alignment here. We all think that middle class folks, working class folks are paying their fair share already. As for everything else, there's a lot of uncertainty in the world around us. We are seeing some activity on the stock market these last couple of days that suggests that there might be some bumpy economic times ahead of us. So we're going to see what happens in the November forecast and the February forecast. I'm eager to see Governor-elect Klobuchar's budget and how we make all that work. I also don't think that Donald Trump is... done seeking retribution, his word, not mine, against the state of Minnesota. I think any day now we could see more massive budget cuts to our health care system coming from Washington, D.C., that on our existing resources we just wouldn't have the capacity to handle. And so I think that there are options that we should leave on the table. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the largest technology companies the world has ever seen, the largest companies the world has ever seen, the most profitable ones, to pay a little bit more, particularly They're causing such harm here in the state of Minnesota. Social media companies are wreaking havoc with mental health, when particularly children's mental health and depression, anxiety, and other things. you I don't understand why it's unreasonable to ask them to pay a little bit more when they're causing so much damage to our state. very But look, there's a long road ahead of us in the budget process. We haven't seen the November forecast, let alone the February forecast. much. We could be in an entirely different economic picture in a few months. I like to focus on where we have common ground right now, and there's a lot of it. Well, I think you know one of the things that I've always really appreciated about Governor-elect Klobuchar's record in the Senate is how she's held big tech companies accountable and gone after antitrust. Those are issues that have always been very important to her. I think there's actually a lot of alignment, a lot of mutual interest there, and a lot of mutual concern about those huge tech companies. Look, I've been here for eight sessions now, an additional one as a staff member, and every single one of them has been very different from all of the others. And so I have no doubt that this upcoming session will be very different from the other nine that I've been a part of. Each session has its own personality because each session is confronting different challenges, involves different people. And so no session is going to be a replay of a prior session. And we're in a different fiscal picture. obviously We have a different administration in Washington that presents very different challenges for Minnesota and so I do think this will be a different session just like 23 you was different from 21 and 19 and so on very so forth. Well, I think affordability issues are going to be our laser focus and health care in particular. much. You know, in October, we saw folks in the individual and small group market see another double digit premium increase. We're going through open enrollment right now and people are seeing massive increase in their premiums, massive increases in deductibles and copays that are just making people's personal finances worse and worse. And we need to help with that. I am worried about our hospital system. HCMC was the canary in the coal mine, and the same pressures that brought HCMC within days of collapse are impacting hospitals all across the state and are going to demand attention from the legislature this spring, I think. And so something that is affordably focused, probably in the healthcare space, maybe looking at hospitals. No, gun violence prevention will be a major priority for our caucus. Last year, every single Democrat in this building voted in favor of enacting common-sense gun violence prevention measures. Every single Republican voted against it. We now have a lot more Democrats here, and that means we can actually make progress on gun violence, and that will be an early-session priority for sure. Look, this is a personal issue. For our caucus and for me, my predecessor was killed in an act of gun violence. We don't want any other Minnesotans to go through what we have gone through as survivors of gun violence. Yeah. This obviously was a huge priority for our caucus last session to respond to the cries from Minnesotans across the state, broad bipartisan majorities who wanted to see us act on gun violence prevention. And I personally heard just yesterday from Annunciation families who are living in my district. I think the Senate did some great work, but I think every legislature takes a fresh look at things. I think in broad strokes it'll probably be similar, but I wouldn't say it'll be word-for-word identical. It remains to be seen. Yeah, of course. I mean, the truth is that if the president makes the kinds of cuts that he is capable of making towards Minnesota's health care system, the state does not have the capacity to fully backfill that. And it will impact real people all across the state of Minnesota. Our task will be to mitigate that harm to the best possible extent and try to protect our hospital systems, which are already on the brink of collapse, particularly in greater Minnesota. But this will be a major focus of our session is trying to respond to the violence that the federal government, President Trump and Republicans have committed against our health care system and against middle class families who are just groaning under the pressure of increased premiums, increased co-pays, increased deductibles, paying more and getting less in the health care space. They're begging for help and we're going to deliver. You know obviously it's a huge consideration because in Minnesota unlike the federal government we don't have the ability to deficit spend. We have to have a balanced budget. We ended the last session with a projected surplus in this upcoming budget window. You know we have seen Tax collections over the last few months outpace estimates and so maybe that's some good news. At the same time, part of the reason why that's happening is because of inflation, frankly. When things cost more, you collect more in sales tax. And we're not seeing the other side of the picture in these estimates. We're not seeing how much... Government spending is going on and inflation also drives up the cost for government. And by the way, those same health care pressures that families are feeling impact state and local government too drive up the cost of delivering health care that the state gives either to its employees or, you know, provides to citizens. And so I think it's a really uncertain budget forecast and it will have a big impact, obviously, on the session because we have to find a balanced budget. Yeah, well, you know, the ag economy, farmers across Minnesota, I think have noticed that the president was not very helpful with his tariffs, with rising diesel prices and everything else. And we did see, you know, some snapback in greater Minnesota. It's worth saying that we are the only caucus in Minnesota, the DFL is the only party in Minnesota that represents really the whole state, right? I mean, we had, even before Tuesday, districts that we represented in greater Minnesota. And districts inside the Beltway, unlike the Republican Party. But we certainly want to ensure that all across Minnesota, people can afford their lives. Some of the issues we're talking about here are particularly impactful in greater Minnesota. You know, we talk about housing, and I think people maybe think that that's a metro issue, but there are housing crises all over the state of Minnesota. And I think it's holding back our economy, in particular in greater Minnesota, where there... There are employers who would come and locate out there, but there isn't the housing to be had. Health care is another example. And, you know, I talked to folks at one of our major ag companies here in Minnesota, and they said their number one priority in this upcoming session was rural health care because what they need is for farmers to be in the field. And if farmers can't get health care in their community, it won't work. And so we need to make sure we keep that health care system in greater Minnesota functional So that the ag economy. Actually works across Minnesota, so that absolutely will be a focus for us. I think that, you know, our caucus has no tolerance for fraud and we won't rest until we completely stamp out fraud. Every single dollar of fraud is a dollar that is a taxpayer dollar, but it's also a dollar that was supposed to be going to a kid with autism or a senior citizen or a homeless person and who steals from kids with autism. We want the people responsible for that to be in prison and we want those programs safeguarded so they can deliver services to the people who are legally entitled to them and so that this never happens again. We passed a very robust fraud agenda in 2026, on top of the fraud work we did in 2025, and we will continue to pass anti-fraud measures until those programs are secure and that there's meaningful accountability for the people who committed those crimes. We are very much behind Governor-elect Klobuchar's plans to conduct a top-to-bottom audit of state government. We are very interested in conducting meaningful oversight of state agencies to make sure that we safeguard these programs, And we will absolutely... I passed legislation to combat fraud further and have additional accountability. You know, I think that fraud certainly was an issue that voters talked about in this election, but it's really clear that affordability was the dominant issue. Look. Voters just handed us the largest majority since the Obama era. I think the blue wave came to Minnesota. We have more seats now than we've had in any election since 2008. And go back before that, a lot of years also. So I think it was a pretty clear resounding win for us. I just want to say to your question about, you know, how did it impact election results in competitive districts, you know, Matt Norris, who is a member from Blaine, who was the author of the OIG bill and has been leading our caucus in fraud, you know, I think he won by double digits and definitely increased his margin, so, you know, I would say that what that shows is that Minnesotans do trust us on fraud. Yeah, that's a great point, because Representative Norris was, you know, one of the districts that Republicans really targeted on fraud, and he won a resounding victory. You know, there has always been more bipartisan work in this place than I think the public really realizes. This is a leap. Even before this last session, a high number of bills passed unanimously or with broad bipartisan support. And we will continue to try to work with our friends across the aisle. And I hope that we can, because I hope I know that they care about. You know, health care and housing and child care too, and I hope that they are willing to work with us in good faith and try and achieve those outcomes, and we are ready to work with them if possible, but we won't allow them to stand in our way if they're not willing to do that. But look, I think a lot of relationships were built over the last two years in the tie, and I hope that we can put those to use and continue those going forward. It makes for a better Minnesota, but it also makes for a more pleasant workplace for us, so we'll definitely try. And then you were asking about committees. We're going to have a big conversation over the next few weeks internally about what our committee structure looks like. So no news on that today. Regardless of what committees exist or don't exist, combating fraud, conducting oversight will be significant priorities for us. But no decisions have been made either way as of this point. We'll have to see how that goes to play. It will depend in part on the posture. They want to take two. I mean, it's not entirely up to us. We are willing to work with them on these issues if they want to work with us in good faith. And we'll have to see if they want to have that kind of constructive relationship or if they want to be in opposition. I hope that we can work together. We have done good work together in the past. But the thing that I would really focus on is that we are committed to achieving results for Minnesotans. We have a responsibility to deliver to them. These core issues of affordability, cost of living, gun violence prevention, putting guardrails on ICE, and we will not be deterred from doing that by any type of obstruction. Well, we do a lot of work in this time period between now and the start of session to do some education and bringing people up to speed on how this place works, and that continues throughout session. There are a lot of new people to get to know, but that isn't unusual around this place. I think when Jamie and I were elected, we had 30 people in our class. In your class, how many were in yours? Yeah, I mean so you know It is not uncommon for us to have big classes. This is not the Congress where people camp out for decades upon decades. Turnover is kind of a regular thing here. It's good for the institution to have new perspectives. You know You know, we had our organizing caucus last night, as I alluded to, and, you know, I can't tell you the number of returning people who came up to me afterwards and said, I just love these new people. They're so great. I think, honestly... The nature of the moment that we are in in Minnesota, when you think about the things that happened in 2025, in the run up to the start of the 2026 election, really caused, you know, a high class of people to step up and say, I want to help. I want to serve. And so we have some really exceptional candidates this year that won and are going to be really exceptional legislators. You know, we're going to be focused on affordability and the budget. It's not a conversation we've had, and certainly not one that I would expect to have until we have a budget. You know, I don't know that it's fully hit me. We keep going through these without her, and it has impact. And the gravity of taking on this position that she held after last summer, and then the 20 years that she was the big sister I never had in a close relationship, I'm not sure that I have processed it yet. What I can say is that I hope that I am half as good a steward of this institution as she was. I do know that the campaign that we ran would have made her very proud. I believe that somewhere out there, she's sitting with a big smile and a margarita, poring over precinct-level election results and just grinning from ear to ear. And we have not made any committee decisions at all yet. That's the next step.