The Minneapolis DFLer now owns the largest victory margin and percentage of vote received in a State Senate special election during the primary era

DFL nominee Doron Clark’s victory in Tuesday’s special election to fill the vacancy in Minnesota Senate District 60 returns the party to a 34-33 advantage in the state’s upper legislative chamber.

Clark, who eked out a 3.5 point win in the special DFL primary two weeks ago with a plurality of 38.1 percent, was expected to cruise to a very large double-digit victory in the special against GOP nominee Abigail Wolters in this DFL stronghold.

For comparison, in 2024’s presidential election, Kamala Harris carried SD 60 by 68.3 points winning 82.3 percent of the vote compared to just 14.0 percent for Donald Trump.

Clark improved on that number – winning 90.9 percent of the vote and defeating Wolters by 82.2 points and thereby shattering a few state records along the way.

Smart Politics reviewed the 91 special elections conducted for the Minnesota State Senate during the primary era (1902-present) and found that Clark’s 82.2-point victory margin and 90.9 percent of the vote received are the largest ever in Minnesota history.

Prior to Clark’s rout, no State Senate nominee had received more than 80.2 percent in a special election nor won by more than 60.7 points.

Those records were set in April 2011 when DFL attorney and long-serving State Representative Mary Jo McGuire won SD 66’s special election over Republican public affairs and communications consultant Greg Copeland.

Clark, however, had never previously been elected to public office though had served as the DFL Chair of SD 60.

Only three other State Senate special election winners received more than three-quarters of the vote over the last 123 years:

Dziedzic was Clark’s predecessor in SD 60 whose death in late December caused the vacancy.

Aside from Clark and McGuire, Dziedzic was the only other State Senate special election victor to record a 60+ point victory margin during the primary era.

Since 1902, the average victory margin in Minnesota State Senate special elections has been 17.6 points with winning candidates averaging 57.6 percent of the vote. Forty of these 91 races were decided by single digits.

Looking back prior to 1902, the last candidate to fare better than Clark was Fairmont attorney Howard Dunn in 1896 – but it comes with an asterisk. Dunn ran unopposed that November, nominated by petition for the state’s 6th CD seat – a seat that was seemingly vacant because Republican Senator Frank Day was elected Lieutenant Governor by the State Senate on January 25, 1895. However, Day had continued to cast votes as a Senator.

But Day then ran for the 2nd Congressional District seat in the general election which permitted Dunn to get his name on the ballot (senators were in the midst of four-year terms) on the grounds that Day could not hold his seat whilst running for congress. Day lost his U.S. House bid in the general election by 16.2 points to Republican U.S. Representative James McCleary. Both Day and Senator-elect Dunn then claimed the SD 06 seat and Dunn won the election contest and was sworn in on January 26, 1897.

As noted above, SD 60 is one of the most lopsided partisan Senate districts in the state. Even still, Clark ran ahead of the partisan lean of the district by nearly double-digits.

A similar Democratic boost was seen in a State Senate race south of the Minnesota border in Iowa’s 35th SD. The Clinton County-based district saw a +21-point advantage for Trump last November turn into a 3.6-point Democratic pick-up on Tuesday.

Clark will stand for reelection in November 2026 for a full four-year term.

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