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 less than 1,000 votes.

On Monday, the House DFL caucus announced that Stephenson would replace Hortman as DFL House leader.

See Full Page