As they plumbed the depths of negotiating a state budget with an evenly split Minnesota House, Speaker Lisa Demuth and Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman hatched a “no-shenanigans team,” selecting two lawmakers they each trusted to get a budget bill unstuck.
“There are times that you pull in the resources that we have,” Demuth told reporters amid budget talks in late May. “And we sent in the no shenanigans team.”
One team member was Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, a septuagenarian lawmaker with a long-held reputation for mastering policy details. The other was Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, just 41 years old and hailing from a district where he had just won reelection by fewer than 1,000 votes.
On Monday, the House DFL caucus announced that Stephenson would replace Hortman as DFL House leader. The move comes as DFLers press for an assault weapons ban following the fatal shooting of Hortman in June and a deadly Minneapolis school shooting in late August.
“The only reason that you are talking to me is that Melissa Hortman was killed in an act of gun violence,” Stephenson said in an interview.
Whether the Legislature meets in special session this fall to tackle gun control, or waits to convene in February, the House will likely be in a 67-all tie between DFLers and Republicans. Stephenson (and Demuth) will be bound by the same power-sharing agreement House members hashed out last session.
Stephenson is a noted Hortman protégé, serving as a 20-year-old campaign manager in 2004 when she first won election to the Minnesota House. Here is what else to know about Stephenson:
His district is historically Republican
District 35A, which encompasses parts of Anoka and Coon Rapids, was for 16 years represented by Republican Jim Abeler. When Abeler successfully ran for the District 35 Senate seat in 2014, another Republican, Abigail Whelan, took his place.
Stephenson flipped that, running for the Minnesota House in 2018 as “a father, prosecutor and lifelong resident of the northern suburbs.”
He graduated from Coon Rapids High School in 2002 and came back to the area after graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, serving as a prosecutor for Hennepin County.
Stephenson’s victory was part of a blue suburban wave that put the House in DFL control, and elevated Hortman to House speaker for the first time.
Even as Stephenson ascended within the House, first as chair of the Commerce Finance and Policy Committee, then as co-chair of Ways and Means, he still faced close elections.
Last year, Stephenson edged out Republican challenger Josh Jungling with just under 52% of the vote to Jungling’s 48%.
“If you look at other legislative leaders, they tend to be in very safe districts,” said Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College.
“When you represent a district like mine, you have to be in touch with the community,” Stephenson said. “I do a ton of door knocking and I learn a lot about what people say they want.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Stephenson commands respect from Republicans. Abeler said he has worked with Stephenson on infrastructure measures regarding road repair and the Anoka Rum River Dam.
“I think he brings a pragmatic approach to the leader’s job that is going to be necessary,” Abeler said. “I believe he was the DFL’s strongest choice.”
When asked to describe Stephenson, observers from Rep. Marion Rarick, R-Maple Lake, to Richard Carlbom, DFL party chair, used the word “steady.”
“I’ve seen him put his nose to the grindstone and work really hard,” Rarick said.
DFL’s left flank also praised Stephenson, if slightly less effusively.
Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope and member of the House’s People of Color and Indigenous caucus, congratulated Stephenson, declaring that the “House DFL caucus stands strong, united and ready to meet this pivotal moment for our state and the nation.”
His policy record is somewhat unorthodox
During our interview, Stephenson levied the utterly scurrilous and outrageously off-base charge (wink) that the press has focused too much on his role in legalizing recreational marijuana in Minnesota in 2023 and not enough on the rest of his legislative record.
“I am proud of the cannabis work,” Stephenson said. “But I am really proud of what I did on consumer protections and affordability issues.”
To that end, Stephenson wrote laws setting up new arms of government to crack down on student service operators and runaway prescription drug prices.
Marijuana notwithstanding, his biggest legislative accomplishment was maybe a 2021 law on energy efficiency standards for utilities and electric co-ops.
As for marijuana, Stephenson’s ongoing work on state legalization does provide a window into his leadership style.
Related: Joint oversight: Recreational cannabis bill amendment would give local governments some say on enforcement, licensing
Leili Fatehi, partner and principal at marijuana business consulting group Blunt Strategies, recalled Stephenson “playing a very important role in convening different stakeholders.”
“We spent a considerable amount of time with Rep. Stephenson,” Fatehi said. “He was very interested in the details of the policy and outcomes that would balance competing interests.”
It also provides a glimpse into Stephenson’s work with tribes. Minnesota’s marijuana laws gave the state’s 11 tribal nations autonomy to set up grow and retail operations, and let them set up shop off reservation.
Stephenson also proposed a since-stalled measure to let tribes lead the way on legalizing sports betting. In 2022, Stephenson told MinnPost that if Minnesota is going to permit sports wagers, “We should stick with the most-established, sophisticated players in the market, which are the tribal casinos.”
Asked what he would prioritize as House DFL leader, Stephenson ticked off continuing his work on prescription drug pricing as well as bills to make housing and child care more affordable. He also stressed the need for an assault weapons ban.
“People want to enjoy hunting and protect themselves,” he said, but assault rifles are not what responsible gun owners are talking about when they seek to keep their firearms.
Editor’s note: This article first appeared on MinnPost and was written by state government reporter Matthew Blake. It is republished here with permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
MinnPost is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to producing high-quality journalism for Minnesotans.
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