Doron Clark (D) and Abigail Wolters (R) are running in a special election for District 60 in the Minnesota Senate on Jan. 28, 2025.

The district is vacant due to the death of state Sen. Kari Dziedzic (D) on Dec. 27, 2024. Her death left a vacancy that turned Democrats’ 34-33 majority in the Senate into a 33-33 tie. Democrats and Republicans established a power-sharing agreement until the election is held. The agreement allows both parties to chair committees and agree to not change any Senate rules. As a result, this election will determine majority control. For more information on the agreement and the effects of the vacancy on the Senate, click here.

Clark is a community organizer. He says he is running to continue the work of Sen. Dziedzic and says, “No one can ever fill Kari Dziedzic’s shoes, but I will do everything in my power to live up to her legacy.” He is campaigning on improving education and says, “We need to more fully fund education. I’d start with how we fund school lunches.” Clark is also campaigning on housing saying, “We have a housing emergency. We’ve got encampments here, and we’ve got to fix that now.”

Wolters is a software engineer. She says she is running because she believes “Minneapolis would benefit from having a conservative voice representing us in the state legislature. The Minnesota legislature needs balance when discussing issues specific to…Minneapolis.” She is campaigning on public safety saying, “I’m…looking forward to taking crime more seriously. I think there’s been a lot of violent crime in the past four years, and some of that comes from people who aren’t documented.” Wolters is also focusing on reducing spending, and her website says she would “advocate for responsible budgeting to reduce waste and fraud to keep more money in your pocket.”

The district has recently voted for Democratic candidates. In 2022, Dziedzic ran unopposed, winning 98.7% of the vote. The last time the seat was contested was in 2020, where Dziedzic defeated Mary Holmberg (R) 85.7% to 14.1%. For more information on past election results in the district, click here.

Minnesota has a divided government. The governorship is held by Democrat Tim Walz, the state House is held by Republicans pending a special election, and the state Senate is divided pending a special election. Since 1992, Minnesota has had a divided government with the exception of 2013-2015 and 2023-2025 when Democrats held a trifecta. To read more about Minnesota’s historical party control, click here.

This election is the fifth scheduled special election for a state legislature in 2025. Since 2012, Minnesota has held twenty special elections for state legislative seats. Elections for Senate District 45 in 2024, Senate District 11 in 2019, and Senate District 13 in 2018 were covered by Ballotpedia. For more information on state legislative special elections taking place in 2025, click here.

In addition to the Senate, the Minnesota House of Representatives also has vacancies that have delayed the start of the legislative session. For more information on Minnesota’s 2025 legislative session, click here.