Minnesota senators can now bring their children into the chamber, upending 168-year-old rule

Allison Kite, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Mar 25, 2026

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For the first time in its history, the Minnesota Senate will allow senators and staff to bring their children on the floor following calls from women on both sides of the aisle to make the chamber more welcoming to parents.

Senators voted 41-25 on Wednesday to make the change after Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, was escorted off the floor earlier in the legislative session with her 7-month-old son, Leo.

Oumou Verbeten said she felt shame and embarrassment while being led out of the chamber where she serves.

“It made me feel like I’m not welcomed, like this place is not built for someone like me to serve,” she told the Minnesota Star Tribune, “and I’m so grateful that I had colleagues who said that’s not right.”

Oumou Verbeten and Sen. Julia Coleman, R-Waconia, were the primary sponsors of the rule change, which drew support from other mothers serving in the Minnesota Senate.

“It was long overdue to make sure that this is a more family-friendly institution, that we can be parents and we can be senators,” Oumou Verbeten said.

Coleman said that after seeing Oumou Verbeten be removed from the floor she reached out, and the two set out to change the rule. Coleman said when she was first elected, another senator was removed for bringing her children. Frustrated, she told Coleman, “Good luck being a mom and doing this job.”

“I don’t ever want to have to look another mother in the eyes and say the words I heard before,” Coleman said.

Allowing children on the floor marks a monumental change in the 168-year history of the Senate, where members weren’t allowed to drink water in the chamber until a few years ago. The Minnesota House already allows lawmakers’ children on the floor.

Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, said she lost the ability to breastfeed her daughter because she couldn’t drink enough water during long debates and stopped producing milk. When her daughter wound up in the hospital, doctors said Maye Quade couldn’t give her formula but offered to let her breastfeed.

“I just started crying because I couldn’t give her breast milk because I didn’t produce anymore,” Maye Quade.

Maye Quade shared that experience with Coleman, who was unable to breastfeed her premature twins because of the demands of the Senate.

Coleman said she once had to leave her oldest child, then 3 years old, in a hallway next to the Senate chamber while she voted.

“I had him put his hand on that door,” Coleman said, “and he was scared when I got down on his level and said, ‘Baby, you can’t come with Mommy today. I have to run in and vote. Please keep your hand on the door, and please do not move.’”

The move drew opposition from some senators who worried children would be a distraction, cause the chamber to feel crowded or give senators preferential treatment other Minnesotans don’t have.

Members sought to amend the rule to allow children only under the age of 1, 5 or 10 to be on the floor. Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, proposed letting the rule expire at the end of the year. Those amendments weren’t adopted.

Sen. Rich Draheim, R-Madison Lake, instead suggested converting a conference room off the Senate chamber into a parenting room.

Sen. Michael Holmstrom, R-Buffalo, proposed an amendment to allow staff to bring their children on the floor, saying lawmakers had made it difficult for child care providers to operate and were attempting to “exempt ourselves from the consequences of our actions.”

“I have deep compassion for the challenges of members in our body. I face the same challenges,” said Holmstrom, a father. “But I made a solemn commitment to my constituents to sacrifice and to serve the people of my district, not to shield myself from the very policies that we create.”

That amendment passed.

Coleman closed the more than 90-minute debate by saying she was “not shocked” that senators had to take more time to consider the rule change than some pieces of legislation.