Good morning.  It’s the last week of session. Soak it in.

By this time next week, the ball is over for Minnesota lawmakers. The Legislature is in its final sprint. The Sunday  midnight clock chime is the latest to pass bills. This is the year when a bill can’t pass on the final day of the 2026 session. Retirement speeches and other formalities are all that will happen then, if not sooner. So if you have a Capitol-adjacent job, there’s a good chance you’ll be working long hours next weekend. 

What’s left to do? A lot or a little. Only proposals with the bipartisan stamp of approval are likely to advance in the tied House. Capitol leaders are circling around a plan to shore up HCMC. Some kind of safety and security legislation could pass, perhaps encompassing both schools and for public officials. A construction projects bill is still in play, although that one takes fancy footwork to assemble the three-fifths majorities needed to pass it. The infrastructure financing bill is the main piece of leverage for minority party Senate Republicans. But the clock is also an asset to them because any slowdown in consideration of items can dictate what or what doesn’t reach final votes. Peter Cox and Dana Ferguson sum up the state of play heading into the last lap.

Former state Sen. Matt Little has the advantage in the race for the 2nd Congressional District nomination among Democrats seeking that open House seat. Little won the party endorsement over the weekend. He scored the endorsement on the first ballot at the convention in Burnsville. An August primary still looms with both of his main challengers, state Sen. Matt Klein and state Rep. Kaela Berg, soldiering on despite not being endorsed. Little is the former mayor of Lakeville but now lives in New Market Township. The seat covering the southeastern Twin Cities suburbs and parts of greater Minnesota is open as U.S. Rep. Angie Craig runs for the Democratic nod for U.S. Senate. Republican state Sen. Eric Pratt awaits the eventual DFL nominee. 

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar had little trouble at her endorsing convention in the 5th District. Omar is vying for a fifth term in one of the most heavily Democratic districts in the country. Of note: U.S. Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s current lieutenant governor, nominated Omar at the convention. Republicans in the Legislature and in Washington have made Omar, one member of the progressive “Squad” in the House, a fixture of their campaign messaging. That includes President Donald Trump, who often calls out the congresswoman by name. Dalia Al-Aqidi is Omar’s probable fall opponent in the 5th District.

As Democrats head for the statewide endorsing convention later this month, U.S. Senate candidate Angie Craig is pounding the pavement to drum up support for her candidacy. Craig, who has held the state’s 2nd U.S Congressional district since 2019, is trying to edge out Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for the nomination. While Craig has said she’s planning to stay in the race until the statewide primary, she’s hopeful she can win the party endorsement later this month. During a rally at Malcolm Yards in Minneapolis, Craig laid out her case to be the DFL candidate — strong experience in Washington, a shown ability to win as a Democrat in a purple district. “The only way we win is by extending a hand, by meeting people where they are, by bringing more people into or back into the fold, and folks, I know how to do that,” she said. Craig leads in fundraising, but Flanagan is refusing funding from corporate political action committees — something she’s criticized Craig for over and over. Craig argues that having as much money in the bank will be key to Democrats winning the Senate seat in November.

Catch that ad promoting Lisa Demuth’s gubernatorial campaign right after the Timberwolves game last night?  The 30-second spot cost the independent expenditure group $17,500 and was part of a modest opening buy on behalf of the House speaker and Republican contender for the party's nomination. It is both a biographical spot of Demuth and a commercial attempting to put Amy Klobuchar on par with Gov. Tim Walz. You’ll recall from a prior edition of this newsletter that the Restore Sanity PAC came into this quarter with $1 million-plus in the bank and most of it from a single donor group, a conservative political action committee. The committee’s biggest donor by far is billionaire Richard Uihlein For Demuth, it’s exactly the type of airpower she would need to keep pace with Klobuchar’s own campaign bankroll.

During an appearance on Politics Friday, Minnesota governor hopeful Amy Klobuchar addressed a bevy of topics. Those include how she would approach fraud, her views toward a wealth tax, if she’d get behind a Minnesota redistricting and whether she would consider running again for the White House. You can find that interview here . But just to put to rest the last matter, Klobuchar said she wouldn’t have jumped into the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination if she had 2028 presidential ambitions. She said the tough times Minnesota has been through influenced her decision to go after the top job back home after almost 20 years in Washington. “I decided that if I can make this better and I can show the world (that in) Minnesota, that we're not just resting on the past, but we're moving to the future, I'm going to do this job." 

Another reason to catch up on the Politics Friday podcast (for those of you who didn’t catch it live) is a nice segment about legislative retirements. We spoke with Republican Sen. Warren Limmer and DFL Sen. Sandy Pappas about how the Capitol has changed, what imprint they think they left and their frustrations with the shift in tone and process. Stick around for their impressions of the six governors both served under (there are some surprising takes). Their combined eight decades of service is part of a 387-year loss of institutional knowledge after the election. That number will grow with additional retirements and probable electoral defeats. Again, here is the show’s listen-back link.

You’re not hallucinating, the House approved a psilocybin treatment program. The bill creates a pilot psilocybin medical program for a maximum of 1,000 Minnesotans over three years who have qualifying medical conditions like PTSD or depression. Studies show psychedelic treatments can be extremely effective treatments and unlike other medications, they can work after just one use. Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-Rochester, chief sponsored the bill. “This program is a very conservative, slow entrance into this new area of psychedelic medicine,” Smith told his colleagues on the House floor Thursday. Rep. Matt Bliss, R-Pennington, said he wouldn’t support legalizing psilocybin for recreational use, but it should be available as a treatment for veterans. According to state data, more than 100 veterans die by suicide here each year. In 2023, Bliss said one of those veterans was a family member of his. Bliss said veterans need new options to support their mental health. “This is important. We've got to do this. Please vote green,” Bliss said. The House overwhelmingly approved an amendment adding the treatment program bill language to a larger health and human services bill which later passed a floor vote. Further negotiations between the chambers lie ahead before the catch-all bill can head to the governor. The bill aligns with recent federal support for psychedelic medicine. If you or someone you know is struggling, call 988 or find help online.

Some lawmakers want to expand a program statewide that helped St. Paul double its nonfatal shooting solve rate. Nonfatal shootings, which are often gang related, can lead to more violence if the shooter tries again or another shooter retaliates. As Cait Kelley reports, interrupting that cycle can prevent future violence, but doing that takes time and money. Traditionally, police departments have focused on homicides instead. In 2020, police in Denver pioneered a successful new approach to decreasing crime : investigating nonfatal shootings as thoroughly as homicides. In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature gave Ramsey County and the St. Paul Police Department funding to adapt Denver’s approach. Within a year, the city doubled its solve rate of nonfatal shootings and improved other violent crime statistics. Sen. Doron Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, and Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, have spearheaded an effort to fund nonfatal shooting investigation teams around the state. The initiative has brought together stakeholders often at odds: law enforcement and progressive public safety advocates and Republicans and DFLers at the Capitol. The House passed a public safety package last Monday that includes $1 million for the program. Advocates agree that’s not much, but it’s an important start. The program will likely be part of final negotiations between the chambers.