In the final hours of session, Democrats took some of the most appalling actions I’ve ever seen. After 10:00 pm, with less than 2 hours left in session, Democrats convened a conference committee to announce they had rolled all of their omnibus bills into one massive bill that was 1431 pages. They brought that bill to a vote in both the House and the Senate within the last 45 minutes of the legislative session. We did not even have access to this bill’s language.

For the last 20 minutes of session, the entire Republican caucus was ignored. Every motion we attempted and every question we had was left unanswered. The Democrats abandoned decorum so that they could force through their partisan legislation. We were not even able to see the bill language until after the Senate adjourned. This is disgraceful, this is no way to govern, and it sends a message that Democrats are willing to silence any opposition to their radical agenda.

I’d also like to point out that this bill is obviously unconstitutional. The Minnesota Constitution states that “no law shall embrace more than one subject.” Yet this mammoth bill includes transportation, higher education, energy, human services, health and human services, taxes, paid family leave, and a host of gun laws. At 1431 pages, who knows what else they shoved in there in the dark of night?

Democrats mismanaged their bills and abused the legislative calendar, and then tried to blame it all on Republicans. The fact is that Democrats are in control of the schedule and they delayed their own agenda. They were more concerned with defending Sen. Mitchell after she committed a felony by breaking into her stepmother’s home. Instead of focusing on passing bills with bipartisan support, they spent time defending an alleged felon, so they could have enough votes to force through their bills. In fact, during the last Saturday of session, we spent more time in recess than we did on the floor.

Every member of the Senate has the same election certificate, and we were all sent here by our constituents to be their voices at the Capitol. No election certificate is more important than another. The majority party has no right to override the voices of Minnesotans, yet that is exactly what they did. Democrats have gotten comfortable with abusing their power, and they will continue to do so until they are forced to answer for their actions.

What we saw at the end of session was a breach of public trust and a disregard for transparency. Democrats need to be held accountable for what they’ve done. Democrats abandoned democracy and the democratic process. In doing so, they abandoned Minnesotans. They have shattered public trust with their actions and they need to be held accountable.