| Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin is throwing his hat in the ring. Martin announced yesterday he is running for chair of the Democratic National Committee. That role will lead the party as it looks towards the 2026 and 2028 elections. In a video posted to social media, Martin said he wants to help the Democratic party reconnect with voters after losing ground in this year’s election. “In every crisis there’s an opportunity and the opportunity now is to look forward and to imagine what the DNC could and should be and we’ve got a record here in Minnesota that really paints a path forward of how we should build the future DNC,” Martin told All Things Considered. He has chaired the Minnesota DFL since 2011 and has helped the party overcome significant debt and also oversaw a Democratic trifecta at the Capitol. He’s been vice-chair of the DNC since 2017.
With a tie in the Minnesota House, leaders have agreed to an even split on committee control. Legislative leaders this week said they will have Republican and Democratic co-chairs lead each committee and evenly split membership on the panels. Democratic Leader Melissa Hortman and Republican Leader Lisa Demuth are still working on a broader power-sharing agreement ahead of the 2025 legislative session. The Constitution doesn’t allow two speakers to serve at once, so they’ll have to decide how to divide power at the top.
Gov. Tim Walz took a few questions from the Minnesota press corps yesterday and said he’s confident that legislative leaders can work across the aisle. The governor said he plans to meet with all four leaders this week to discuss priorities for a two-year budget and how Republicans and Democrats might be able to work together. He pointed to the divided Legislature that passed a budget during his first year in office and said that could be a blueprint for 2025. “I think if we can get back to the model that we were able to do in 2019, we got quite a bit done,” he said. Minnesota reporters have had very limited access to the governor since he was announced as the Democratic VP candidate back in August. Here’s hoping that access improves moving forward.
Walz was in Becker for a ceremony marking Xcel Energy’s transition from coal-fired energy to solar at the Sherco site. Kirsti Marohn reports that the first phase of the solar project was completed last month, but state officials and business leaders got to make a plug for it yesterday (they also plugged in a ceremonial power cord for good measure). The group touted federal tax credits that helped roll out the project and said similar carbon-free energy projects could see a tougher path forward under the Trump Administration.
Two-thirds of social equity applicants who applied for cannabis licenses with the state got turned away. Matt Sepic breaks down the numbers from the Office of Cannabis Management and says that the remaining one-third of applicants move next to a lottery for pre-approval. Social equity applicants were the first that could apply for cannabis licenses, which includes those who live in high poverty areas, people harmed by the war on drugs and military veterans. OCM leaders said the applicants that got culled flooded the zone with applications or failed to disclose some of their business connections. Attorneys working with social equity applicants say the OCM’s rejection letters don’t provide an explanation and say the office was inconsistent in the way it handles applications. That could open OCM to litigation.
Manhattan prosecutors are asking for an additional pause in Trump’s hush-money case. That would give both sides time to weigh the unprecedented nature of the situation . In May, a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business business records. But now that Trump has been elected president, the situation is a little more complicated. A judge last week paused Trump’s sentencing in the case, which would have been Nov. 26. The prosecutors’ office is asking for a Dec. 9 deadline for the next filing, which would focus on whether the case should be dismissed. | 
