The election is over. Statehouses are already building 2027

Minnesota picks its teams

Minnesota's House has its leadership for the next two years. House DFL members selected Rep. Stephenson as speaker-designate for the 2027-2028 biennium, with Rep. Jamie Long as majority leader and Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura as majority whip. The session begins January 12, 2027, and the House is projected to have a 77-57 DFL advantage following the November 2026 election, pending a recount in one district decided by 22 votes. m:…3878

House Republicans chose Rep. Niska as minority leader and Rep. Jim Nash as deputy minority leader for the same biennium. Their stated priorities are reducing costs, property taxes and gas taxes, and they support a top-to-bottom audit of state government to address fraud. The two caucuses are now set up to argue about the same thing from opposite sides: what a DFL trifecta should cost, and who should check it. m:…2272

New York tests AI liability

New York's Senate referred S10733, the Understanding Artificial Intelligence Responsibility Act, to the Senate Rules Committee on November 6, 2026. Sponsored by Senator Rachel May, the bill would require developers of covered AI models to be strictly liable for certain injuries. It is still in committee. m:…6885

Strict liability is the part that matters. It would shift the question in an AI injury case from whether a developer was careless to whether the developer should pay regardless. That is a bigger change than a new disclosure rule or a safety standard, and it is the kind of law that, if it passed in New York, other states would copy or react against. For now it is one bill in one committee, and the honest read is that most bills at this stage go nowhere. m:…6885

Arkansas budgets from a surplus

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders presented a balanced budget proposal of about $6.97 billion to the legislature, a $311.6 million or 3.94% increase over the previous year. The proposal is built on a $655 million state surplus from the last fiscal year, and state revenues in the first four months of the current fiscal year exceeded forecasts by more than $150 million. m:…2839

The spending is targeted: $150 million for Medicaid, including supportive living services for the CES Waiver waitlist, $70 million for the Education Freedom Account, $20 million for early childhood education, and $25 million for Division of County Operations SNAP administrative costs. The governor also identified $50 million in one-time surplus funding for the State Water Plan and is directing $75 million in annual interest earnings to Medicaid. m:…2839

The budget's logic is straightforward: spend the surplus on the governor's priorities while keeping room for future income tax cuts. Whether the legislature agrees, and whether the revenue performance holds, is the open question. A surplus budget is easy to write in a good year; the test comes when the numbers turn. m:…2839

South Dakota plans a quiet second term

South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden, re-elected to a second four-year term, has begun transition planning for the next term. The administration expects to announce cabinet re-appointments and potential new faces in the coming weeks, and says it aims to maintain continuity in its leadership roster. Rhoden has served as the state's 34th governor for more than 600 days. m:…3205

There is no drama in that announcement, and that is the point. After an election, the work of governing is mostly appointments, budgets and committee assignments — the unglamorous machinery that decides what actually happens. Minnesota chose its leaders, New York filed its test case, Arkansas wrote its chequebook and South Dakota kept its team. The 2027 session is already taking shape, weeks before it opens. m:…3878 m:…6885 m:…2839 m:…3205