List of minority leaders of the Minnesota Senate

Last updated September 26, 2025

This is a list of minority leaders of the Minnesota Senate .

Name	Took office	Left office	Party/caucus
Bolesaw G. Novak	1951	1955	Liberal
Harold W. Schultz	1955	1963	Liberal
Paul A. Thuet	1963	1967	Liberal
Karl F. Grittner	1967	1971	Liberal
Nick Coleman	1971	1973	Liberal
Harold G. Krieger	1973	1975	Republican
Robert O. Ashbach	1975	1983	Republican/Independent-Republican
James E. Ulland	1983	1985	Independent-Republican
Glen Taylor	1985	1987	Independent-Republican
Duane Benson	1987	1993	Independent-Republican
Dean Johnson	1993	1995	Independent-Republican/Republican
Dick Day	1995	2007	Republican
David Senjem	2007	2011	Republican
Tom Bakk	2011	2013	Democratic-Farmer-Labor
David Hann	2013	2017	Republican
Tom Bakk	2017	2020	Democratic-Farmer-Labor
Susan Kent	2020	2021	Democratic-Farmer-Labor
Melisa Franzen	2021	2023	Democratic-Farmer-Labor
Mark Johnson	2023	Incumbent	Republican

Notes on Minnesota political party names

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party: On April 15, 1944 the state Democratic Party and the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party merged and created the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). It is affiliated with the national Democratic Party.
Republican Party of Minnesota: From November 15, 1975 to September 23, 1995 the name of the state Republican party was the Independent-Republican party (I-R). The party has always been affiliated with the national Republican Party.

In 1913, Minnesota legislators began to be elected on nonpartisan ballots. Nonpartisanship also was an historical accident that occurred in the 1913 session when a bill to provide for no party elections of judges and city and county officers was amended to include the Legislature in the belief that it would kill the bill. Legislators ran and caucused as "Liberals" or "Conservatives" roughly equivalent in most years to Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican, respectively. The law was changed in 1973, in 1976, Senate members again ran with party designation.

References

Minnesota Legislative Reference Library

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