Democratic candidate Xp Lee prevailed Tuesday in a pivotal special election to fill the seat opened by the killing of House leader Melissa Hortman.

The outcome, called by The Associated Press not long after voting closed in the Brooklyn Park-area district, will return the House to a 67-67 tie between the parties.

Hortman had been the caucus leader and the chamber’s former speaker when she and her husband, Mark, were gunned down in their home in June. A man posing a police officer showed up in the middle of the night and opened fire; the suspect charged in the killings is also accused of shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in their Champlin home in an attack the couple survived.

Lee beat Republican nominee Ruth Bittner. The district had favored Democrats. Hortman held

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