Governor DeSantis rose to national prominence as a pugilistic conservative willing to take on what he sees as the excesses of liberal culture, and was rewarded by Florida’s voters with a 20-point re-election victory. Democrats in search of their own DeSantis are looking increasingly at Minnesota, where Governor Walz is plowing ahead with some of the most ambitious, partisan policies in the country. 

Mr. Walz was first elected in 2018 as a rural populist. A 24-year veteran of the U.S. Army, public school teacher, and six-term congressman, Mr. Walz won the general election by more than 10 points. He was re-elected last year by a slightly smaller margin. 

Mr. Walz’s first term saw no major policy changes in Minnesota beyond a tax cut for employees and more money for pre-kindergarten programs. Last year, though, Democrats took control of the state legislature for the first time in a decade, and they quickly went to work on an ambitious agenda. 

A Republican state representative, Pat Garofalo, told the Sun that Democrats have been taken over by the most liberal elements of the party. “With Democrats in total control, there’s very little ideological balance. It’s all the progressive left wing,” he said in a phone interview. 

Mr. Garofalo said Democrats are moving much faster now than they did when they had complete control of state government between 2012 and 2014.

“The difference between last time and now is that there used to be a lot of geographic and ideological diversity,” he said. “There were moderates that would bring some policies to the center. When one party gets total control, you see some pretty extreme policies coming out.”

Three bills introduced in the legislature this year are high on the Democratic Party’s list of priorities: protecting abortion rights, expanding paid leave, and investing in green technologies to mitigate climate change. 

The Protect Reproductive Options Act was the first bill put forward after Democrats won control of state government. The legislation “establishes a fundamental right to reproductive health and an individual’s right to make autonomous decisions about one’s own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive healthcare.”

Republicans aggressively opposed the bill. One GOP state senator proposed an amendment that would have banned third trimester abortions, but Democrats voted down the measure. Critics now say the law permanently protects the right to an abortion up to the moment of birth. During a debate on the senate floor, Minority Leader Mark Johnson called it “the most extreme abortion bill in the country.” 

The second bill, a paid leave mandate, is under consideration. The legislation would require all Minnesota employers — regardless of size — to provide at least 12 weeks of paid leave for illness and at least 12 weeks of paid leave for family obligations, bringing the total of permitted paid time off to 24 weeks. 

The language of the paid family leave section is expansive, allowing workers to take time off to care for anyone from parents to children to nephews, nieces, and parents-in-law. 

“No one should have to choose between a paycheck or caring for themselves and their family,” a state representative, Ruth Richardson, said at a committee hearing. “Unfortunately, in Minnesota only an estimated 13 percent of workers have access to paid family leave through their employer to care for a new child or a seriously ill family member.”

The bill would establish seed funding of more than $1 billion in state money to help employers get their own paid leave programs started. Beginning next year, taxes would be raised on employees to help fund the state’s long-term implementation of the law. 

Republicans in the legislature say they would be open to supporting the paid leave law, but major changes need to be made for that to happen. They want to exclude businesses with less than 50 employees and expand paid leave to 12 weeks rather than the Democrats’ proposal of 24. “If we don’t get the details right here, once this thing leaves the station, you can’t put it back,” a Republican state representative, Dave Baker, said.

Last month, Mr. Walz signed a bill that requires utilities companies to make the transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040. “What this bill does is it makes it very clear that no longer is this debate about moving towards a clean energy future on sustainability of the planet and our economic future are no longer divided, they run hand in hand,” he said at the bill signing.

Democrats in the legislature have also moved with historic speed on their agenda. The Minnesota senate passed eight pieces of legislation in the first month of the legislative session. In 2021 and 2019, the senate passed only two bills in the first month, and in 2017 only one passed. Every other year in the past decade saw zero pieces of legislation passed in the first month. 

Protecting abortion rights and expanding paid leave have been goals of the Democratic Party at the state and national levels for decades. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, Democrats also are taking a more aggressive stance on criminal justice issues. 

Just last week, the legislature approved a bill that will allow formerly incarcerated felons to vote from the moment they are released from prison. Currently, there are more than 50,000 Minnesotans who are barred from voting because they have yet to complete probation or other supervised release. Mr. Walz has said he will sign the legislation in the coming days.