2016 Minnesota Senate election

The 2016 Minnesota Senate election was held in the U.S. state of Minnesota on November 8, 2016, to elect members to the Senate of the 90th [Minnesota Legislature|90th] and 91st Minnesota Legislatures. A primary election was held in several districts on August 9, 2016. The election coincided with the election of the other house of the Legislature, the House of Representatives.
The Republican Party of Minnesota won a majority of seats, defeating the majority of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. This was the first election for the DFL since it won a majority of seats in the Senate election, 2012|2012 election], after losing a majority to the Republicans in the 2010 election. The new Legislature convened on January 3, 2017.

Background

The last election resulted in the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party winning a majority of seats, after losing a majority to the Republican Party of Minnesota only two years earlier in the previous election. This resulted in the Republicans losing the only majority they have had since the return of partisan elections to the Senate in 1976. In conjunction with the result of the House election, it also resulted in the return of all-DFL control of the Legislature since 2010 as well as the return of all-party and all-DFL control of the Legislature and governorship since 1990, which ended with the election of a Republican majority to the House in 2014.

Electoral system

The 67 members of the Senate were elected from single-member districts via first-past-the-post voting for four-year terms. Contested nominations of the DFL and Republican parties for each district were determined by an open primary election. Minor party and independent candidates were nominated by petition. Write-in candidates must have filed a request with the secretary of state's office for votes for them to have been counted.

Retiring members

DFL

Republican

Predictions

Competitive districts

According to MinnPost, the Star Tribune, the Pioneer Press, and MPR News, a total of 19 districts were competitive. MinnPost considered 12 districts to be competitive—10 of which were held by the DFL and two by the Republicans, the Star Tribune 19—13 of which were held by the DFL and six by the Republicans, the Pioneer Press six—five of which were held by the DFL and one by the Republicans, and MPR News nine—seven of which were held by the DFL and two by the Republicans.

District	Incumbent	Party	First elected	2012 result	MinnPost	Star Tribune	Pioneer Press	MPR News	Result
1	LeRoy Stumpf‡	DFL	1982	60.59%					Republican gain
2	Rod Skoe	DFL	2002	54.92%					Republican gain
4	Kent Eken	DFL	2012	52.17%					Hold
14	John Pederson‡	Republican	2010	52.47%					Hold
17	Lyle Koenen	DFL	2012*	55.40%					Republican gain
20	Kevin Dahle	DFL	2008*, 2012†	50.02%					Republican gain
21	Matt Schmit	DFL	2012	52.43%					Republican gain
24	Vicki Jensen	DFL	2012	52.60%					Republican gain
26	Carla Nelson	Republican	2010	55.62%					Hold
32	Sean Nienow§	Republican	2002, 2010†	54.25%					Hold
36	John Hoffman	DFL	2012	53.10%					Hold
37	Alice Johnson‡	DFL	2012	53.23%					Hold
44	Terri Bonoff‡	DFL	2005*	55.81%					Republican gain
48	David Hann	Republican	2002	51.32%					DFL gain
49	Melisa Franzen	DFL	2012	52.74%					Hold
53	Susan Kent	DFL	2012	52.13%					Hold
56	Dan Hall	Republican	2010	53.92%					Hold
57	Greg Clausen	DFL	2012	54.09%					Hold
58	Dave Thompson‡	Republican	2010	57.60%					DFL gain

Results

District results

District	Candidates	Party
1	Jual Carlson	Republican
1	Sue Grafstrom	Republican
1	Alan Jensen	Republican
1	Roger Schmitz	Republican
1	Gary Willhite	Republican
7	Sharla Gardner	DFL
14	Jeff Johnson	Republican
15	Brad Schumaker	Republican
19	Mark Friedman	DFL
20	Mark Bartusek	Republican
20	Bruce Morlan	Republican
20	Danny Petricka	Republican
24	Janet Moline	Republican
26	Elliot Culp	DFL
41	Connie Bernardy	DFL
44	Cole Mathisen	Republican
44	Kelli Slavik	Republican
44	Sharon Sund	DFL
47	Jake Coleman	Republican
48	Joan Howe-Pullis	DFL
52	Maureen Ramirez	DFL
54	Lynn Kaye	Republican
58	Mike Freundschuh	Republican
58	Mark Priore	Republican
58	Melissa Sauser	Republican
60	Chris Meyer	DFL