The walkover districts: Uncontested Minnesota Legislative races tilt strongly in DFL’s favor

We’re calling it now: DFL candidates will handily win 17 state House and four Senate seats in this fall’s election.

It didn’t take a fancy forecasting system to make this prediction. No, that’s the number of Minnesota legislative races with no Republican candidate, making them so-called walkover wins for the DFL candidates.

No major party has had so few candidates running in a House and Senate election year since at least the 1990s, according to a MinnPost review of state voting data. In contrast, the DFL has names on every state House and Senate ballot.

Does the large candidate gap mean anything beyond easy wins for DFLers in those districts? Here’s what you should know.

Where are these walkover districts?

All but one district is in the Twin Cities or an inner-ring suburb. The phrase “sacrificial lamb” came up more than once in interviews for...