Abigail Wolters

Abigail Wolters (Republican Party) ran in a special election to the Minnesota State Senate to represent District 60. She lost in the special general election on January 28, 2025.

2025 battleground election

See also: Minnesota State Senate District 60 special election, 2025

Ballotpedia identified the January 28, special election as a battleground race. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.

Doron Clark (D) defeated Abigail Wolters (R) in the special election for District 60 in the Minnesota Senate on January 28, 2025.

The district was vacant due to the death of state Sen. Kari Dziedzic (D) on Dec. 27, 2024.^[1] Her death left a vacancy that turned Democrats' 34-33 majority in the Senate into a 33-33 tie. Democrats and Republicans established a power-sharing agreement until the election was held. The agreement allowed both parties to chair committees and to not change any Senate rules.^[2] As a result, this election determined majority control, which the Democrats won. For more information on the agreement and the effects of the vacancy on the Senate, click here.

Clark was a community organizer.^[3] He said he was running to continue the work of Sen. Dziedzic. He said, "No one can ever fill Kari Dziedzic’s shoes, but I will do everything in my power to live up to her legacy."^[4] He campaigned on improving education and said, "We need to more fully fund education. I’d start with how we fund school lunches."^[3] Clark also campaigned on housing and said, "We have a housing emergency. We’ve got encampments here, and we’ve got to fix that now."^[3]

Wolters was a software engineer.^[5] She said she was running because she believed "Minneapolis would benefit from having a conservative voice representing us in the state legislature. The Minnesota legislature needs balance when discussing issues specific to...Minneapolis."^[4] She campaigned on public safety saying, "I’m...looking forward to taking crime more seriously. I think there’s been a lot of violent crime in the past four years, and some of that comes from people who aren’t documented."^[3] Wolters also focused on reducing spending, and her website said she would "advocate for responsible budgeting to reduce waste and fraud to keep more money in your pocket."^[5]

In 2022, Dziedzic ran unopposed, winning 98.7% of the vote. The last time the seat was contested was in 2020 when Dziedzic defeated Mary Holmberg (R) 85.7% to 14.1%. For more information on past election results in the district, click here.

Minnesota had a divided government. The governorship was held by Democrat Tim Walz, the state House was held by Republicans pending a special election, and the state Senate was divided pending a special election. Since 1992, Minnesota had a divided government with the exception of 2013-2015 and 2023-2025 when Democrats held a trifecta. To read more about Minnesota's historical party control, click here.

This election was the fifth scheduled special election for a state legislature in 2025. Since 2012, Minnesota had held twenty special elections for state legislative seats. Elections for Senate District 45 in 2024, Senate District 11 in 2019, and Senate District 13 in 2018 were covered by Ballotpedia. For more information on state legislative special elections taking place in 2025, click here.

In addition to the Senate, the Minnesota House of Representatives also had vacancies that delayed the start of the legislative session. For more information on Minnesota's 2025 legislative session, click here.

Elections

2025

General election

Special general election for Minnesota State Senate District 60

Doron Clark defeated Abigail Wolters in the special general election for Minnesota State Senate District 60 on January 28, 2025.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Doron Clark (D)	90.9	7,783
	Abigail Wolters (R)	8.7	746
	Other/Write-in votes	0.4	32

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 8,561
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Democratic primary election

Special Democratic primary for Minnesota State Senate District 60

The following candidates ran in the special Democratic primary for Minnesota State Senate District 60 on January 14, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Doron Clark	38.1	2,073
	Submit photo	Monica Meyer	34.6	1,882
		Peter Wagenius	23.2	1,262
	Submit photo	Amal Karim	1.7	93
		Iris Altamirano	1.4	74
	Submit photo	Joshua Preston	0.5	29
	Submit photo	Emilio Rodríguez	0.4	23

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,436
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Mohamed Jama (D) (Unofficially withdrew)

Republican primary election

Special Republican primary for Minnesota State Senate District 60

Abigail Wolters defeated Christopher Robin Zimmerman in the special Republican primary for Minnesota State Senate District 60 on January 14, 2025.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Abigail Wolters	72.2	153
	Christopher Robin Zimmerman	27.8	59

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 212
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Wolters in this election.