June 17, 2025

 

Release of the 2025 State of Bipartisanship report has been delayed until sometime late summer or early fall.

 

Our intention for this year's report has been and still is to celebrate the quantitative demonstration of bipartisanship during the "most evenly divided session ever" [101 DFLers and 100 Republicans] with events and conversations across the state. There's so much good reflected in the numbers, and we're looking forward to sharing that information with all of you. 

 

As we found in previous reports, bipartisanship is nuanced and difficult to measure. It is hard, messy, and subjective. There are many ways a legislator can work across the aisle that can't be captured in our report. And it is our view that any efforts by legislators to collaborate and build relationships should be celebrated.

 

We are delaying publication because we don't want the spotlight on a report right now. We want attention to stay focused on lawmakers who are coming together in the moment.

 

In the aftermath of the violence and fear and tragedy, many people who work in and around the capitol are struggling. They're coming together. They're expressing a desire to bring down the temperature. And they are, universally, lifting up Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and Senator John Hoffman's embodiment of those ideals. 

 

We want to be as supportive of that leadership and those efforts as possible, and today that means intentionally taking a step back so others can continue to stand front and center.

 

We'll keep doing our part: giving those who are exhausted by the harsh back-and-forth a place to gather, elevating voices of people who are modeling behavior we want to see, and working on ways to bring more civility and less divisiveness to our politics.

 

We'll just be saving the numbers for another day.