The 2018 Election is over. Minnesota is seeing a lot of changes. A new governor and five new members of Congress will take office in the new year. Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan have set up a transition office in the State Capitol. The incoming First Lady Gwen Walz had never been the Governor's Residence, a historic mansion on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. Now she has toured and met with the last First Lady Mary Pawlenty, current Gov. Mark Dayton is not married. The Walz family still has two children in school and are trying to figure out how to manage moving.
Five out of eight out of our congressional districts have new representatives going to Washington. Republicans flipped two rural seats in southern and northern Minnesota, sending Jim Hagedorn in the 1st District and Pete Stauber in the 8th District. Democrats took two suburban seats with Dean Phillips prevailing in the 3rd District and Angie Craig in 2nd District which also contains some rural areas south of the metro. Democrat Ilhan Omar will replace Attorney General-elect Keith Ellison as the member of congress from the 5th District from Minneapolis. She is the first Somali-American elected to a federal office.
