# CLUSTER 03 — FRESHMAN & SOPHOMORE: 2019–2022 Hub: [[Demuth_hub]] Previous: [[Demuth_Cluster_02_ROCORI_2000-2018]] Next: [[Demuth_Cluster_04_MinorityLeader_2023-2024]] --- ## CLUSTER OVERVIEW The Freshman & Sophomore cluster covers Demuth's first two terms in the Minnesota House — January 2019 through January 2023 — across the 91st (2019–2020) and 92nd (2021–2022) Legislatures. Both terms are in the **DFL-controlled House** under Speaker Melissa Hortman. The MN Senate is GOP-controlled (Paul Gazelka, then Jeremy Miller) until November 2022, when DFL flips it to produce the 2023 trifecta. Tim Walz is governor throughout. Demuth enters the freshman class of 2019 with one of the strongest pre-political résumés in the caucus: eleven years on ROCORI, four children, a Cold Spring small-business identity, the biracial protected-class profile, and the Howe recruitment. Her freshman committee assignments — **Early Childhood Finance and Policy, Education Finance, Health Finance & Policy** — place her on the joint statutory architecture of the [[Minnesota-Affirmative-Action-Regime]]: the §43A.191-adjacent state-employee health-protected-class hiring side, the §128C / MSHSL-adjacent K-12 funding side, and the early-childhood funding pipeline that funnels through [[CCAP]] (Child Care Assistance Program) — the program at the center of the eventual Feeding Our Future fraud and the program her first major chief-author bill (HF 1680) targets. In the 2021–22 term Demuth becomes **Assistant Minority Leader** to Kurt Daudt, the structural pre-clearance that positions her as Daudt's heir-apparent when Republicans fail to flip the House in November 2022 and Daudt steps aside. The four-year arc 2019–2022 is the **institutional grooming phase**: she does the work of a competent freshman / sophomore representative while the caucus apparatus and the broader MN GOP move her toward leadership in steps small enough that none individually trigger a "she's being installed" story. --- ## 5-A ENTRIES — 2019 ### January 8, 2019 — Sworn In to the 91st Minnesota Legislature **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth (freshman representative, HD13A). *External:* Speaker [[Melissa-Hortman]] (DFL, presiding); Minority Leader [[Kurt-Daudt]] (R); the freshman class of January 2019 (mostly DFL flips driven by the 2018 Trump-backlash cycle). **Antecedents and Acts — What** Demuth takes the oath of office for HD13A on opening day of the 91st Legislature. The 91st House includes several Black DFL members (Rena Moran, Hodan Hassan, Mohamud Noor, Ruth Richardson, and others). Demuth is the **only Black Republican** in the chamber — a distinction she will hold through her entire House tenure to date. **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Standard new-representative entry. *Institutional:* The "only Black Republican" status is the **structural protected-class anchor** for everything that follows. It is the resource the caucus deploys when it needs a transformation-narrative face for press coverage, leadership pitches, and (eventually) the gubernatorial-launch video. Demuth is, from this day forward, a one-of-one asset in the MN House GOP — a status no other Republican woman or Republican person of color shares. *Strategic:* DFL took the House majority but the GOP holds the Senate. The 2019–2020 session will be one of divided-government managed conflict, not transformational legislation. This is the optimal entry environment for a freshman: she can build relationships across the aisle (which she does — see the Hortman friendship documented in 2025 KARE 11 piece) without being asked to defend or attack load-bearing architecture. **Area or Arena — Where** MN House chamber, State Capitol, St. Paul. **Primary Source Links** - [Wikipedia — Lisa Demuth (assumed office January 8, 2019)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Demuth) - [MN Legislators Past & Present — Demuth, Lisa](https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=15498) --- ### January–March 2019 — Committee Assignments: Early Childhood Finance and Policy / Education Finance / Health Finance & Policy **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth. *External:* Speaker Hortman (assigning committees); GOP Minority Leader Daudt (negotiating Republican slots); the three committee chairs (DFL — names per session record). **Antecedents and Acts — What** Demuth is seated on three House committees as her opening-term portfolio: - **Early Childhood Finance and Policy** - **Education Finance** - **Health Finance & Policy** **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Reflects her 11 years on ROCORI and her professional background in insurance and finance. *Institutional:* This portfolio is **the joint statutory architecture of the MN AA Regime**: state-funded early-childhood programs (the [[CCAP]] vehicle), K-12 foundation aid (the [[Minn-Stat-Chapter-126C]] / Education Finance terrain), and state health programs ([[Minn-Stat-43A-191]]-adjacent health-agency hiring and benefits administration). A freshman placed simultaneously on all three is being given **full operational visibility into the protected-class spending and credentialing apparatus** of the state. This is either coincidence or pre-positioning; given that no other freshman GOP woman received this triple portfolio in 2019, it is more likely the latter. *Strategic:* Education Finance specifically is the committee chair handoff she will spend the next decade preparing for; the assignment in 2019 is the institutional groundwork that makes her later credibility on K-12 issues unimpeachable. **Area or Arena — Where** MN House committee rooms, State Capitol, St. Paul. **Primary Source Links** - [MN House — Rep. Lisa Demuth profile](https://www.house.mn.gov/members/profile/15498) - [MN House — Demuth Legislative Report (2019 freshman period)](https://www.house.mn.gov/members/profile/news/15498/39626) --- ### Spring 2019 — HF 1680 (Chief Author): CCAP Daily Attendance Recordkeeping **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth (chief author). *External:* House GOP caucus co-authors; the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA), whose **2019 evaluation** of CCAP fraud is the immediate predicate for Demuth's bill; DFL committee majority that ultimately determines the bill's fate. **Antecedents and Acts — What** Demuth introduces **HF 1680**, a bill requiring CCAP-receiving child-care providers to maintain **daily attendance records at the site where services are delivered** — modeled on commercial trucking log requirements. The stated rationale is fraud prevention and child-safety verification. The OLA's CCAP fraud assessment (published 2019) had documented systemic recordkeeping gaps that enabled the kinds of fraud later prosecuted in the Feeding Our Future ecosystem. **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Improve child safety, combat fraud, protect taxpayers. *Institutional:* This is Demuth's **first chief-author bill** and it targets exactly the program — CCAP — that will become the second-largest MN pandemic-era fraud after FOF. The bill does not pass in 2019 (DFL House majority does not advance it). It will be re-introduced and updated in subsequent sessions, and the underlying argument will become the **central GOP fraud-oversight narrative** that Demuth deploys throughout 2022–2025. *Strategic:* By picking CCAP as her freshman chief-author topic, Demuth establishes a **fraud-and-oversight signature issue** that does not require her to attack any AA Regime statute by name. The framing is "protect children and taxpayers" — which is institutionally invisible at the statute-architecture level but politically potent. **Area or Arena — Where** MN House Early Childhood Finance and Policy Committee; State Capitol. **Primary Source Links** - [MN House — Demuth Legislative Update (CCAP context)](https://www.house.mn.gov/members/profile/news/15498/39539) - [MN OLA — Child Care Assistance Program: Assessment of Fraud (CCAP review PDF)](https://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/sreview/ccap.pdf) - [MN DHS — CCAP fraud referrals page](https://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased&dDocName=CCAP_1303) --- ## 5-A ENTRIES — 2020 ### March 2020 – December 2020 — COVID Response; Special Sessions **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth (House GOP backbencher; chief author and author on bills in **1st and 4th Special Sessions of 2020**). *External:* Governor [[Tim-Walz]] (executive emergency powers; recurring extension votes); Speaker Hortman; the seven special sessions of 2020 driven by Walz's peacetime emergency declarations; the small-business community that Demuth represents in HD13A. **Antecedents and Acts — What** Demuth participates in the seven 2020 special sessions. She is a vocal critic of Walz's executive emergency authority and a sponsor of legislative-reassertion measures. She is also one of the principal House Republican voices on small-business COVID relief. **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* COVID-era legislative work; constituent service for HD13A small businesses. *Institutional:* The 2020 session is the moment Demuth's **small-business identity** becomes statewide-visible. The CSG Midwest profile of her (2024) traces her statewide press exposure to her 2020 small-business-relief advocacy. This is the structural through-line from small-business profile → fraud-oversight profile → Speaker → gubernatorial candidate: at each step she remains the candidate the Greater MN GOP small-business class identifies with. *Strategic:* COVID also gives Demuth her **first significant exposure to the limits of executive emergency authority** — a topic that will be relevant when she becomes Speaker and asserts the legislature's institutional position against Walz's administration in 2025. **Area or Arena — Where** MN House chamber; HD13A constituent events; central MN small-business community. **Primary Source Links** - [MN House — Demuth Legislative Update (COVID period)](https://www.house.mn.gov/members/profile/news/15498/43773) - [MN House — Demuth Legislative Update (2020)](https://house.leg.state.mn.us/members/profile/news/15498/43824) - [LegiScan — Demuth bill sponsorships (1st and 4th Special Sessions 2020)](https://legiscan.com/MN/people/lisa-demuth/id/20897) --- ### November 2020 — Main Street Relief Act Unveiling **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth (House GOP co-sponsor / public face). *External:* House Republican caucus leadership (Daudt); the small-business community that the Act is targeted toward; DEED (Department of Employment and Economic Development), the agency that would later administer the Minnesota Main Street COVID Relief Grants program. **Antecedents and Acts — What** Demuth and the House Republican caucus unveil the **Main Street Relief Act** in November 2020 as the GOP-side small-business COVID relief proposal. The Act is not enacted as introduced but contributes to the framing that produces the eventual bipartisan Main Street COVID Relief Grants program (administered by DEED). **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Direct relief for COVID-affected small businesses. *Institutional:* Demuth is now the **House GOP face of small-business COVID relief**. This is a substantial elevation from a freshman / second-term backbencher — Daudt's office is selecting her for these visibility roles, which is itself evidence of the pre-clearance arc. *Strategic:* The Main Street framing is Republican-coded but bipartisan-palatable. Demuth never appears in COVID coverage as a Walz-resistance ideologue (cf. some other House Republicans of the period); she stays in the "small business relief" lane. This is consistent with the "calm and conversational" branding that becomes formalized at the December 2022 caucus leadership election. **Area or Arena — Where** State Capitol; statewide small-business press. **Primary Source Links** - [MN House — Demuth Legislative Update (Nov 2020)](https://house.mn.gov/members/profile/news/15498/42989) - [MN DEED — Minnesota Main Street COVID Relief Grants page](https://mn.gov/deed/mscrg/) --- ### November 3, 2020 — Reelected HD13A (70.75% – 29.13%) **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth. *External:* **Katy Westlund** (DFL nominee); Stearns County electorate; the Trump-cycle 2020 turnout. **Antecedents and Acts — What** General election result: - **Demuth (R): 16,056 — 70.75%** - **Katy Westlund (DFL): 6,610 — 29.13%** Margin: **41.62 points** — nearly **double** her 2018 margin. **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Routine reelection. *Institutional:* The 41-point margin in 2020 — in a presidential year that ran ~5–7 points more pro-DFL statewide than 2018 ran — is the structural validation the AA Regime needed. It demonstrates HD13A is fully consolidated under Demuth and that she can be advanced to caucus leadership without any base-erosion risk in her own district. *Strategic:* This is also the cycle in which Demuth's name first appears in caucus-leadership speculation. The 2021–22 Assistant Minority Leader role (next entry) is confirmed within weeks of this reelection. **Area or Arena — Where** HD13A; MN Sec of State certifier records. **Primary Source Links** - [MN Sec of State — 2020 HD13A results](https://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/results/Index?ErsElectionId=136&scenario=StateRepresentative&DistrictId=379&show=Go) - [Wikipedia — Lisa Demuth (2020 election results table)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Demuth) --- ## 5-A ENTRIES — 2021–2022 ### January 2021 — Sworn In as Assistant Minority Leader (92nd Legislature) **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth (Assistant Minority Leader). *External:* Minority Leader **Kurt Daudt**; House GOP caucus. **Antecedents and Acts — What** Demuth is elevated to the **Assistant Minority Leader** role at the opening of the 92nd Legislature. She is in her second term (sophomore). This is an unusually fast leadership track for a representative without a prior leadership role in House committee structure. **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Caucus organization; Demuth was identified by Daudt as a strong communicator and a representative who could carry the caucus's "calm and conversational" image. *Institutional:* The Assistant Minority Leader role is the **single most important pre-clearance step** in Demuth's caucus rise. It places her in the daily leadership-meeting room with Daudt for two years. By the time Daudt steps aside in November 2022, Demuth is the obvious successor — but the obvious successor is obvious only because the 2021–22 Assistant Leader role made her so. This is the institutional pattern: pre-clear in step N, then in step N+1 the pre-clearance is invisible because it was step N. *Strategic:* No other GOP woman in the caucus held a comparable role. The choice of Demuth specifically — over Kristin Robbins, Anne Neu Brindley, or other House GOP women of the cohort — is the moment the protected-class profile becomes operationally relevant inside the caucus. **Area or Arena — Where** MN House GOP caucus leadership room, State Capitol. **Primary Source Links** - [Wikipedia — Lisa Demuth (Assistant Minority Leader 2021–22)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Demuth) - [MN Legislators Past & Present — Demuth Lisa](https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=15498) --- ### 2021–2022 Session — Lead Sponsor, Fetal Heartbeat Legislation **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth (lead sponsor). *External:* House GOP caucus co-authors; DFL committee majority; Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) and other pro-life advocacy organizations; first responders Demuth cites as her stated motivation. **Antecedents and Acts — What** Demuth is lead sponsor on a **fetal heartbeat bill** in the MN House. The bill does not advance in the DFL-controlled House. Her stated rationale: conversations with first responders that "as long as there is a heartbeat, there's life." **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Pro-life policy; protection of fetal life from the point heartbeat is detectable. *Institutional:* The fetal heartbeat sponsorship is the **AA Regime stress-test** of Demuth's protected-class profile. A Black biracial woman cannot be deployed as a transformation-narrative face if she is treated by the institution as an unacceptable ideologue. By taking the lead-sponsor role on the most controversial pro-life bill of the session and surviving the press cycle without sustained backlash, Demuth establishes that her profile is **inelastic to controversy on the right** — she can hold pro-life policy without losing the "first Black woman" framing. *Strategic:* This is also the moment Demuth's positioning relative to **Roe / Dobbs / Walz's PRO Act** is locked in for the rest of her career. When DFL takes the trifecta in 2023 and passes the PRO Act, Demuth's prior fetal-heartbeat sponsorship makes her the obvious caucus voice in opposition — which is what happens. **Area or Arena — Where** MN House chamber; State Capitol. **Primary Source Links** - [Wikipedia — Lisa Demuth (fetal heartbeat sponsor; opposes abortion)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Demuth) - [MinnPost — Demuth plans to lead minority with 'calm and conversational' style (Dec 5 2022, contains fetal heartbeat reference)](https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2022/12/new-house-republican-leader-lisa-demuth-plans-to-lead-minority-with-calm-and-conversational-style/) - [Star Tribune — How MN Republicans are recalibrating on abortion](https://www.startribune.com/how-minnesota-republicans-are-recalibrating-on-abortion-after-past-election-losses/601587765) --- ### November 8, 2022 — Reelected HD13A (74.01% – 25.94%) **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth. *External:* **Andrea Robinson** (DFL nominee); Stearns County voters; the 2022 cycle context (no presidential race; abortion-and-Dobbs salient; DFL flips the MN Senate statewide but loses ground in central MN GOP strongholds). **Antecedents and Acts — What** General election result: - **Demuth (R): 15,190 — 74.01%** - **Andrea Robinson (DFL): 5,324 — 25.94%** Margin: **48.07 points** — Demuth's largest. HD13A is now her safest seat possible. **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Routine reelection. *Institutional:* The 48-point margin in a cycle where MN GOP loses statewide is the **definitive base consolidation**. By the time the post-election caucus meets in December 2022, no other House Republican has a stronger personal mandate. *Strategic:* The 2022 statewide GOP failure — Walz reelected, DFL takes the Senate — is the predicate for the December 2022 caucus leadership change. Daudt's tenure ends; the caucus is ready for a new face. Demuth's reelection margin and her Assistant Minority Leader experience make her the consensus choice. **Area or Arena — Where** HD13A; MN Sec of State certifier records. **Primary Source Links** - [MN Sec of State — 2022 HD13A results](https://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/results/Index?ErsElectionId=149&scenario=StateRepresentative&DistrictId=379&show=Go) - [Wikipedia — Lisa Demuth (2022 election results table)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Demuth) --- ### Early December 2022 — Elected Minority Leader of the House Republican Caucus **Architects and Actors — Who** *Demuth Internal:* Demuth (winning candidate). *External:* outgoing Minority Leader [[Kurt-Daudt]]; the **64-member House GOP caucus** for the upcoming 93rd Legislature; any competing candidate(s) within the caucus (not publicly identified — the leadership election appears to have been uncontested or near-uncontested per the MinnPost coverage). **Antecedents and Acts — What** House Republican caucus elects Demuth Minority Leader for the 2023–2024 (93rd) Legislature. She is the **first Black** leader of any of MN's four legislative caucuses and the **first woman** to lead the MN GOP caucus. Daudt is succeeded after seven years as caucus leader (2015 Speaker through 2022 Minority Leader). Demuth's stated tone: "calm and conversational" — a deliberate contrast to Daudt's combative style. **Agendas or Appropriations — Why** *Stated:* Caucus renewal after the 2022 statewide losses; need for a new tone. *Institutional:* The 2022 caucus leadership transition is the moment Demuth's protected-class profile becomes the caucus's **primary public asset**. Star Tribune frames the story as the historic-first; MinnPost frames it as the calm-and-conversational pivot; the local trade press frames it as the experienced-Cold-Spring-mother handoff. Each frame draws on a different element of the profile the AA Regime selection mechanism has been assembling since 2007. *Strategic:* No competitive primary for the leadership role is documented. The Daudt-to-Demuth handoff is **pre-cleared**, just like the Howe-to-Demuth handoff was in 2018. This is the second instance of the same structural pattern. **Area or Arena — Where** House GOP caucus meeting room, State Capitol. **Primary Source Links** - [Star Tribune — Lisa Demuth is first woman, person of color to lead MN House GOP caucus](https://www.startribune.com/lisa-demuth-is-first-woman-person-of-color-to-lead-minnesota-house-gop-caucus/600227801/) - [MinnPost (Dec 5 2022) — New House Republican leader Lisa Demuth plans to lead minority with 'calm and conversational' style](https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2022/12/new-house-republican-leader-lisa-demuth-plans-to-lead-minority-with-calm-and-conversational-style/) - [Wikipedia — Lisa Demuth (Minority Leader Jan 3, 2023)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Demuth) --- ## CLUSTER PERSONNEL ADDITIONS (2019–2022) | Name | Role(s) | Entered Record | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | Melissa Hortman | DFL Speaker 91st and 92nd Legislatures; presides over Demuth's first two terms; will become power-sharing counter-party in Feb 2025 | 2019 | First sustained Hortman–Demuth interaction is here | | Kurt Daudt | R Minority Leader 91st and 92nd Legislatures; promotes Demuth to Assistant Minority Leader in 2021; hands her caucus leadership in 2022 | 2019 | Primary recruiter into leadership | | Tim Walz | DFL Governor; counterparty on COVID emergency powers and PRO Act in subsequent cluster | 2019 | Recurring actor | | Katy Westlund | DFL nominee HD13A 2020 | 2020 | Lost 29.13% to 70.75% | | Andrea Robinson | DFL nominee HD13A 2022 | 2022 | Lost 25.94% to 74.01% | | Jim Knoblach (pre-2019) / Jim Read (2018) / Jim ??? | DFL nominees in HD13A across the cluster | 2018–2022 | The HD13A DFL bench is structurally underdeveloped — a fact that makes Demuth's margins easier than they would be in a contested district | --- ## CLUSTER METRICS (2019–2022) - **Election margins HD13A:** 2018 +22.07, 2020 +41.62, 2022 +48.07 (monotonically growing) - **Bills as chief author:** HF 1680 (CCAP daily attendance) + bills in 2020 1st and 4th special sessions; full list to be enumerated from MN LegiScan - **Committee assignments:** Early Childhood Finance and Policy / Education Finance / Health Finance & Policy (2019–2022) - **Caucus leadership role:** backbench (2019–2020) → Assistant Minority Leader (2021–2022) → Minority Leader-elect (Dec 2022) - **ACU scorecard:** below caucus average (per Wikipedia citation to ACU; specific year-by-year scores to be sourced) - **Public statements on the AA Regime as a system:** zero documented through 2022 --- ## OPEN RESEARCH QUESTIONS (Cluster 03) 1. **Complete bill authorship list 2019–2022** — from LegiScan and house.mn.gov, with co-authors, committee paths, and outcomes. The CCAP HF 1680 bill is well-documented; the rest are not yet enumerated. 2. **Specific committee votes 2019–2022** — particularly on Walz emergency-powers extensions, on the 2020 police-reform package after George Floyd, on 2021–22 abortion bills, and on any gender-identity statutes through this period. 3. **December 2022 caucus leadership election internal dynamics** — was there a contested vote? Who were the other candidates discussed? The press record suggests uncontested or near-uncontested but the internal record should be confirmed. 4. **ACU MN House scorecard year-by-year** — would establish how "below caucus average" actually maps to specific votes. 5. **Top donors and PACs 2018, 2020, 2022 cycles** — from Transparency USA and the MN Campaign Finance Board. The dossier should include a top-25 donor list per cycle. 6. **Daudt-Demuth working relationship 2019–2022** — beyond the formal succession, the day-to-day caucus operation. Press coverage suggests warm; internal dynamics not yet documented. --- ## SOURCES (Cluster 03) - [Wikipedia — Lisa Demuth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Demuth) - [MN Legislators Past & Present — Demuth Lisa](https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=15498) - [MN House — Rep. Lisa Demuth profile](https://www.house.mn.gov/members/profile/15498) - [MN House — Demuth Legislative Updates (2019–2022 archive)](https://www.house.mn.gov/members/profile/news/15498) - [LegiScan — Demuth bill sponsorships](https://legiscan.com/MN/people/lisa-demuth/id/20897) - [BillTrack50 — Lisa Demuth bills](https://www.billtrack50.com/legislatordetail/23886) - [MinnPost — New House Republican leader Lisa Demuth (Dec 5 2022)](https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2022/12/new-house-republican-leader-lisa-demuth-plans-to-lead-minority-with-calm-and-conversational-style/) - [Star Tribune — Lisa Demuth is first woman, person of color to lead MN House GOP caucus](https://www.startribune.com/lisa-demuth-is-first-woman-person-of-color-to-lead-minnesota-house-gop-caucus/600227801/) - [MN Sec of State — HD13A results 2020, 2022](https://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/) - [MN OLA — CCAP fraud assessment](https://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/sreview/ccap.pdf) - [CSG Midwest — Profile of Minority Leader Demuth (PDF)](https://csgmidwest.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/leader-demuth.pdf) #Actors_and_Architects