He's expected to make the announcement official this morning via news release, he said on Twitter late Thursday.

On Dec. 31 Republican activists from across the state will gather in St. Cloud to elect a new party chair. The meeting will cap a tumultuous end to 2011 for the state GOP. Earlier this month Tony Sutton suddenly resigned from the party’s top post. Revelations soon followed that the party is likely more than $1 million in debt.

On Saturday Republicans will gather in Bloomington for a meeting of the party’s State Central Committee. Among the agenda items for the roughly 350 delegates: electing a new deputy chair and approving the party’s 2012 budget.