Minnesota House of Representatives election, 1980

← 1978

November 4, 1980 (1980-11-04)

1982 →

All 134 seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives
68 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Irv Anderson	Rod Searle
Party	DFL	Independent-Republican
Leader since	1978	1978
Leader's seat	3A–International Falls	30B–Waseca (retired)
Last election	67 seats	67 seats
Seats before	68	66
Seats won	70	64
Seat change	2	2
Popular vote	900,218	924,863

Speaker before election

Elected Speaker

The 1980 Minnesota House of Representatives election was held in the U.S. state of Minnesota on November 4, 1980, to elect members to the House of Representatives of the 72nd Minnesota Legislature. A primary election was held on September 9, 1980.

The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) won a majority of seats, remaining the majority party, followed by the Independent-Republicans of Minnesota. The new Legislature convened on January 6, 1981.

The last election resulted in the DFL and Independent-Republicans winning an equal number of seats. Under an agreement reached between the two parties, the Republicans would be given the speakership, the chairs of the divisions of the appropriations and tax committees, and a one-vote majority on the divisions of the tax committee. The DFL would be given the chairs and a one-vote majority on the rules and tax committees as well as the chair of the appropriations committee. The chairs and membership of the remaining committees would be equally divided.

This arrangement would last until the end of the legislative session in May 1979, when the DFL obtained a majority after the House removed Republican member Bob Pavlak from office on a straight party-line vote, declaring that he violated the Minnesota Fair Campaign Practices Act and therefore was not legally elected. Pavlak was legally barred from voting on matters relating to his contested election, allowing the motion to remove him to pass. Pavlak ran in the resulting special election for his former seat held on June 19, 1979, losing to DFL candidate Frank Rodriguez.

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