Good morning. Have we gotten any sleep yet?

At her first press conference as governor-elect, Amy Klobuchar sidestepped questions about who will fill her U.S. Senate seat. But she did seem to signal that she, not current Gov. Tim Walz, will make the appointment or at least dictate the chocie. State law says if there is a vacant U.S. Senate seat, Minnesota’s governor appoints someone to fill it (Ellie has this explainer ). “I just won the election last night and I will be very careful in that decision,” she said. “I will do right by the state of Minnesota with that person.” Klobuchar also announced members of her transition team yesterday , which included her former chief of staff and people who worked for her in Washington and in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. It also includes people in the health policy sector, which could signal that Klobuchar is planning to make big changes in agencies that oversee social services and are wrapped up in Minnesota’s fraud scandal. The chair of her transition team is Cindy Jesson, Human Services commissioner under former Gov. Mark Dayton.

Several Minnesota races appear to be headed to automatic recounts. In the 1st Congressional District, Democrat Jake Johnson has declared victory over GOP Rep. Brad Finstad, but the race hasn’t been called and only 323 votes separate the two. In the Legislature, the closest race is in Senate District 4, where GOP challenger Austin Peterson of Hawley has four more votes than DFL Sen. Rob Kupec. In the Stillwater area, Republican state Sen. Karin Housley has 42 more votes than DFL challenger Nat Smith in unofficial results. In the northern suburbs, Rep. Nolan West of Blaine was up 22 votes over his DFL challenger Amanda Matchett. Once the State Canvassing Board certifies the results, recount plans will be adopted. While state law provides for automatic, taxpayer-financed recounts in races within a certain margin, the trailing candidate can decide not to go ahead with a recount if they don’t want one or feel it won’t change the outcome.

Fervent opposition to large-scale data centers proved to be a motivating political factor in high-profile races from Ohio to Texas — and in some local races across Minnesota. As Dan Kraker reported, a political neophyte who opposed the planned Google data center in Pine Island won two-thirds of the vote against the incumbent interim mayor who supports the project. And in Hermantown, where a second Google data center generated a fierce backlash from local residents, two political newcomers won seats to the city council, outpolling an incumbent who voted to approve the massive project just last week.

As we keep parsing through the vote totals — yet to be certified — the daunting deficit Republicans faced in the state’s population centers tell the tale. As we’ve written before, Republicans are struggling to crack the statewide code since their last victory in 2006. DFLer Amy Klobuchar ran up the score: Anoka County (+ 5 percentage points), Dakota County (+-21 percentage points), Hennepin County (+-49 percentage points), Ramsey County (+-53 percentage points) and Washington County (+-16 percentage points). Republican Lisa Demuth was ahead in only three of the metro area counties: Carver County (+2.2 percentage points), Scott County (+1.6 percentage points) and Wright County (+23 percentage points). Peggy Flanagan’s advantage in those populous counties was slightly less pronounced but still big enough to make her win over Michele Tafoya a runaway.

The Minnesota vote-getting crown goes not to a person or party but to a ballot measure. The most votes in an election this year were for approval of the school funding amendment that taps an established trust fund. It got 2,068,086 votes in unofficial results, which was about 73 percent approval on all ballots. There were 768,982 votes either as outright no votes or blank ballots that count in opposition. Among named candidates, the top draws were not in the partisan races. They were Supreme Court justices: Sarah Hennesy won 1,639,656 votes (98.94 percent) in an unopposed race where there were 17,639 write-ins followed by Paul Thissen at 1,620,671 (99 percent) to 16,395 write-ins. The top partisan candidate on the vote leaderboard: the Democratic governor ticket led by Amy Klobuchar at 1,569,696 in unofficial results.

Legislative caucuses will gather today and tomorrow to pick new leaders ahead of the 2027 legislative session. Senate Democrats and Republicans will meet separately to choose the next Senate Majority and Minority Leader today. House Democrats will meet tonight to pick their caucus leader. And House Republicans plan to meet tomorrow morning to select the person to head their caucus.

Minnesota’s most influential U.S. House Republican won’t have a clear path to another term in leadership. Rep. Tom Emmer, the majority whip for a party moving to the minority, is seeking the main vote-chasing role for the conference. But Washington publications including Punchbowl News and Politico say Texas Rep. August Pfluger will challenge Emmer for the job. The slimmed Republican conference will face other changes: House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana will not seek to lead the GOP minority next year. Democrats are likely to choose New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as the next House speaker. Leadership elections will be held in private next week.