At Minnesota Capitol, Democrats debate whether to moderate or hold firm on progressive policies

The battle within the Democratic Party over whether to moderate or double down on progressive values is unfolding in the final days of the legislative session, as lawmakers debate whether to preserve a generational set of policies they adopted two years ago.

A group of moderates want to make changes to some of the measures the DFL passed in 2023, arguing that voters last year sent a message that they want lawmakers to meet in the middle.

Democrats maintained their one-seat majority in the Minnesota Senate in November’s elections, but Republicans broke the DFL’s majority in the now-tied House.

“I think it’s right to do that given what the voters told us just last fall,” said Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton, who’s leading an effort to exempt certain small businesses from Minnesota’s new sick and safe time law. She added that “folks are looking for some more balance and additional voices at the table.”

That’s creating a rift with more progressive Democrats, who want to preserve their historic recent victories, from paid family medical leave and earned sick-time benefits to health care for undocumented immigrants.

The path forward is critical as lawmakers race toward a May 19 deadline to strike a deal on the next two-year budget.

Seeberger said she was proud of Democrats’ 2023 work, calling it “transformative” and “once in a lifetime.” But she closed her small law firm after legislators mandated that employers offer paid sick and safe time. Seeberger and fellow “Blue Dog” Democrats joined with Republicans last week to exempt the smallest businesses from the rule.

“If something’s not working as well as it could be or should be, that’s when we, I think, roll up our sleeves and dive in a little bit and have those difficult conversations,” Seeberger said.

Gov. Tim Walz proudly promoted the progressive agenda passed by Democrats in 2023, even highlighting it on the national campaign trail when he ran for vice president last year. Now he, too, has said he’s open to reining in some of the policies, particularly the health care program for undocumented immigrants that Republicans worry will cost more than expected.

Walz said he’s willing to revisit the program as long as it still covers children. Given the narrow divide in the Legislature, the governor said “there’s going to have to be compromises made.”

The willingness by some Democrats to tweak 2023 achievements has been met with frustration from progressives. Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, said Minnesotans will notice if they lose their sick and safe time, adding that it was the “wrong thing to do for working people.”

“I don’t like to think about votes and elections, but I’m pretty sure we just had an election on people needing more help, not less,” Maye Quade said.

How some of the DFL’s accomplishments are scaled back could be a signal for how the party and its most prominent members intend to chart a path to 2026 and beyond.

Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, said voters sent a message last fall that they were more concerned with “pocketbook” issues. Frentz and Seeberger are both members of the Blue Dog Coalition, founded in January by senators from closely divided districts who saw a need for more bipartisanship in the Legislature.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig’s resounding victory on a moderate Democratic platform, Frentz said, demonstrated Minnesota’s shift toward the middle.

Frentz objected to the idea that moderate Democrats were rolling back their accomplishments. He’s sponsoring legislation that would exempt businesses with 15 or fewer employees from the mandatory paid family and medical leave law, which he said was not a “hostile act” but an attempt to make sure the issue has been thoroughly discussed before the program launches in January.

“I don’t know that I see some massive wave of rollback,” Frentz said. “I think legislators like me are asking, ‘Can these things be improved?’”

Fellow moderate Democrats said the same – they don’t see their positions as a repudiation of the DFL’s 2023 accomplishments.

“I’m not looking to roll back what I did,” said Sen. Robert Kupec, DFL-Moorhead. Kupec’s district includes Clay County, which Vice President Kamala Harris won by 156 votes last fall.

Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, won reelection in 2022 by a comfortable margin in a district that two years later voted for President Donald Trump.

He characterized the Blue Dog Coalition as a group of “people who will listen to the other side” but said they are “not selling out our values.”

“We’re unified in wanting to talk to people who didn’t vote for us,” he said. “We shouldn’t take any voter for granted.”

Lawmakers in the DFL’s progressive wing have framed the possible changes as taking away rights.

Senate Labor Committee Chair Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth, admonished her more moderate colleagues for supporting exemptions to the sick and safe time law, calling the effort “shameful.”

“What you will be voting to do is to take away rights from Minnesotans,” McEwen said during the Senate floor debate. “I believe that this body should be ashamed if it passes.”

Maye Quade said she didn’t know whether the proposals had to do with the fall election results.

“I don’t know how you could look at any situation that we are in and arrive at the conclusion that taking paid sick time away from people is the right answer,” she said.

Members of the Minnesota House People of Color and Indigenous Caucus struck a similar tone at a news conference last week. They called on Democrats to preserve the health care program for undocumented immigrants and other 2023 laws.

“We are protecting the laws that we brought to make history,” said Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul. “We are protecting our children and our families.”

Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, said she and other progressive Democrats want to “make sure that we’re living in a state that doesn’t leave anyone behind.” She said they will “keep fighting” to preserve the programs, but wouldn’t say if they would go as far as voting against a budget deal that pares back the 2023 laws.

Steven Schier, a political scientist and Carleton College professor emeritus, said many Democrats view the 2023 laws as a “historic accomplishment, something they want to protect to the maximum extent possible.”

The DFL’s progressive members have shown little interest in compromise, Schier said. That could make it difficult for legislative leaders to budge in spending negotiations.

“We’re relatively evenly divided,” he said, “which means that when the loudest voices want no compromise … it’s very difficult for policy to find a way.”

Janet Moore of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.