The lay of the Leadership Races for the 2025 Legislative Session

With many races already decided in the primary elections with fall elections quickly approaching, it is that time where legislators turn to more noble pursuits.. 

Oh, who are we kidding? It’s time for our elected officials to start campaigning for caucus leadership. From reports of checks being written and calls being made, here’s the state of how the 2025 leadership races look, which will likely be decided shortly after the election possibly on the eve before the Governor’s budget address.

House of Representatives:

Speaker of the House – Mike Stevens v. Jon Hansen
Speaker Pro Temp – Taylor Rehfeldt v Karla Lems
Majority Leader – Will Mortenson v. Scott Odenbach
Assistant Leader – Drew Peterson v. Greg Jamison v. Marty Overweg

The House races seem to be driven by the forces of stability holding the caucus together these past 2 years versus the crew that wants to go back to the bad old days that we had under house leaders such as Spencer Gosch, or Steve Haugaard.  Remember the years where women were commanded that they can’t go sleeveless, and special session votes were held as secret?  Those were not the good old days.  

Senate:

President Pro Temp – Dave Wheeler v. Steve Kolbeck v. Chris Karr
Majority Leader – Casey Crabtree v Jim Mehlhaff
Assistant Majority Leader – Helene Duhamel or Sydney Davis v. possibly Taffy Howard*

The race for the leader of the State Senate is a toss up at the moment between Wheeler, Kolbeck & Karr each working to find a pathway forwards with the votes they have to work with. And that may be decided by who wins on November 5, and who can build a coalition with the Democrats that end up in the Senate.  The contest for Majority Leader is surprising, considering Crabtree’s strong leadership over the past 2 years, but given the stack of wild cards thrown in the Senate with the number of new people coming in – who knows how that is going to go. 

Same thing for the race for Assistant Majority Leader. It’s an election day contest. #1 will be whether Helene Duhamel is successful in her re-election effort against Independent candidate & transplanted Texan Karen McNeal. Another strong contender is District 17’s Sydney Davis. These two candidates – both of whom are solid legislators and lovely people – would likely not run against each other as much as find middle ground.   *There are rumors that Taffy Howard is going out and meeting Senators, possibly in a bid for a leadership seat. Buuut… There are also rumors that she’s making personal visits begging for cash because her coffers have dried up after the primary.  We’ll see what shakes out when Pre-General reports are filed.  

With those names floating around in the ether in Leadership discussions the most sure bet is that once we have the election, then things are going to get really crazy.

Stay tuned.