State reference

How does government work in Minnesota?

Minnesota’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

201

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

Foundation: Constitution of the State of Minnesota source
In effect since: 1857 source

What may surprise you here

Minnesota’s legislative offices are partisan, but all judicial, county, municipal, and school district offices are nonpartisan. source
Minnesota has 1,779 township governments, which run local affairs in rural areas outside cities. source
Judges are elected, but if a seat is vacant the governor fills it by appointment until a successor is elected. source

Legislature

Name: Minnesota Legislature source
Senate: seats: 67 source
Senate: term in years: 4 source
House of Representatives: seats: 134 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: None source

Structure set by: Minnesota Constitution, Article IV, Sections 2 to 4.

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: None source
Next regular election: 2030 source
Lieutenant governor: joint ticket source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: elected source
Secretary of state’s term in years: 4 source

Courts

Highest court: Minnesota Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Minnesota Court of Appeals source
Main trial court: District Court source
How high-court judges reach the bench: nonpartisan election source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 87 source
Cities and towns: Minnesota has 854 municipal governments and 1,779 township governments, and municipal, county, and school district offices are nonpartisan. source
Schools: The Census Bureau counts 330 independent school district governments in Minnesota. source

Elections

Chief election official: Secretary of State source
Who runs elections locally: County auditors and municipal clerks source
Primary type: open source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: no source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Tim Walz Democratic, in office since January 7, 2019. source

US senators for Minnesota
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Amy Klobuchar	Democratic	Class 1	January 4, 2007	January 3, 2031
Tina Smith	Democratic	Class 2	January 3, 2018	January 3, 2027

Members of the House for Minnesota
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Brad Finstad	Republican	August 12, 2022
District 2	Angie Craig	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 3	Kelly Morrison	Democratic	January 3, 2025
District 4	Betty McCollum	Democratic	January 3, 2001
District 5	Ilhan Omar	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 6	Tom Emmer	Republican	January 6, 2015
District 7	Michelle Fischbach	Republican	January 3, 2021
District 8	Pete Stauber	Republican	January 3, 2019

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 1