2022 Minnesota Senate election

The last election in 2020 resulted in the Republican Party of Minnesota retaining a majority of seats,[1] after winning a majority from the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) only four years earlier in the previous election in 2016. Control of the Senate has alternated between the Republicans and the DFL every election since 2010.[2] All-Republican control of the Legislature ended when the DFL won a majority in the House in 2018.[3]

The 67 members of the Senate will be elected from single-member districts via first-past-the-post voting for four-year terms. Contested nominations of recognized major parties (DFL, Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis, Legal Marijuana Now, and Republican) for each district will be determined by an open primary election. Minor party candidates will be nominated by petition. Write-in candidates must file a request with the Secretary of State's office for votes for them to be counted. Candidates for the state Senate in 2022 must file to run from May 17, 2022, to May 31 at 5:00 P.M.[4]

Due to the 2020 United States Census, the law requires redistricting to occur before February 15, 2022, in order to give candidates ample notice before the legislative filing window in late May. Historically, the legislature has often been unable to agree on redistricting, leading to a court decision on the issue, but commentators have noted that Democrats have a thin majority in the state House, while Republicans have a thin majority in the state Senate, possibly forcing negotiations within the legislature.

As of August 2021, hearings have recently begun in both the House and Senate Redistricting Committee, with the Senate committee members having their first meeting in Bemidji on August 9, and the House committee members having their first meeting on August 18.

According to the State Demographer's office, 78% of the growth that occurred in Minnesota since the last census took place in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area. This will require shifting districts from rural areas to urban ones: David Schultz, a political scientist at Hamline University, speculated that the redistricting would give Democrats an advantage in three or four new state House districts and two state Senate districts.

Questions of accountability for racial gerrymandering have also been raised, given how Minneapolis has grown more diverse and Saint Paul has become majority-minority since the last census.

Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park), Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, said “After the racial reckoning that we've had since the murder of George Floyd, I think that is still the top of mind for people, that we have a country that lives up to its ideals for everyone."