NEW ULM — State Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, and State Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, participated in a series of town hall meetings on Tuesday, ahead of Minnesota’s 2025 legislative session.

The 2025 legislative session is scheduled to begin Tuesday, but at the top of New Ulm’s town hall meeting, Dahms and Torkelson said it could be delayed. Both Senate and House DFL legislators are considering not attending until special elections have been decided.

On the Senate side, Dahms explained that the DFL had a majority, but the death of Minnesota DFL Senator Kari Dzidezic on Dec. 26 forced a special election scheduled for Jan. 28. At the same time, DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchel is expected to be absent Tuesday due to pending court date for allegedly breaking into her stepmother’s house in Detroit Lakes to take back items belonging to her late father.

Dahms said it is possible that on the first day of session, the Republicans — though in the minority — could have a temporary majority. The Republicans could use this temporary majority to set the leadership and organization of the session. To prevent this, many DFL senators are considering not attending the first day of the session to prevent any votes from being taken until the DFL has a majority present.

Torkelson said there was a similar situation in the Minnesota House. Following the November election, the Minnesota House was split even with 67 Republicans and 67 Democrats. However, like the Senate side, a DFL member of the House will be absent on the first day of the session due to a special election, giving Republicans a temporary 67-66 majority.

Torkelson said with this advantage the Republicans could elect a House Speaker with only 67 votes, which he confirmed his party intends to do. The House DFL is also considering going on strike to prevent Republicans from taking a vote.

Dahms and Torkelson said until these issues are resolved the session might not start. Their concerns were that this could delay the session start until February and prevent work on balancing the budget.

Dahms said in November there was a $661 million surplus forecast, but going into February it is expected to be less. Dahms suspects the Senate will need to look at making cuts to the budget because there will not be enough money to keep the current budget in place.