Kathleen A. Osborne Vellenga (born August 5, 1938) is an American politician and novelist.
Vellenga was born in Nebraska. She went to South Dakota State University and received her bachelor's degree in education from Macalester College. Vellenga lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her husband and three children, and was an early childhood educator. She served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1981 to 1994 and was a Democrat. [1] After she stepped down from the legislature, she served as the executive director of the St. Paul Children's Initiative. [2]
In 2013, she published her first novel Strangers in Our Midst, a work of historical fiction about the friendship between an English passenger on the Mayflower and a Wampanoag woman living on the land that the English soon came to occupy. [3]
The sequel, In the Midst of Bounty, came out in 2016, and the third book in the series, Tides of the Kennebec, was published in 2021. [2]
Joanne E. Benson is an American politician and educator who served as the 44th lieutenant governor of Minnesota from January 3, 1995, to January 4, 1999. A Republican, she was elected as Arne Carlson's running mate. From 1991 to 1995, Benson served as a member of the Minnesota Senate.
Kathleen Anne Blatz is a former Minnesota judge and legislator. She served as the interim chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, which governs the U.S. Bank Stadium.
Louise Welsh is an English-born author of short stories and psychological thrillers, resident in Glasgow, Scotland. She has also written three plays, an opera, edited volumes of prose and poetry, and contributed to journals and anthologies. In 2004, she received the Corine Literature Prize.
Melissa Hortman is an American politician and the Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Hortman represents District 34B in the northern Twin Cities metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Brooklyn Park, Champlin and Coon Rapids and parts of Anoka and Hennepin Counties.
Sandra L. "Sandy" Pappas is an American politician who has been serving in the Minnesota Senate since 1991. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represents District 65, which includes parts of Saint Paul in Ramsey County. Pappas served as President of the Minnesota Senate from 2013 to 2019.
Dee Long is a Minnesota politician, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and a former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, representing part of Minneapolis. Long was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, a position she held from 1992 to 1993.
Tarryl Lynn Clark is an American activist, attorney, politician and a former member of the Minnesota Senate. A Democrat, she represented District 15, including portions of Benton, Sherburne, and Stearns counties, from 2006 to 2011. She was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nominee for United States Congress in 2010, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Republican Michele Bachmann.
Michelle Louise Helene Fischbach is an American attorney and politician who is the U.S. representative from Minnesota's 7th congressional district. The district, which is very rural, is Minnesota's largest by area and includes most of the western part of the state. A Republican, Fischbach served as the 49th lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 2018 until 2019. As of 2024, she is the last Republican to have held statewide office in Minnesota.
Ann Lynch is a Minnesota politician and a former member of the Minnesota Senate who represented District 30, which includes portions of Olmsted and Wabasha counties in the southeastern part of the state. As a Democrat, she was first elected to the Senate in 2006, but was unseated by Republican Carla Nelson in the 2010 general election.
Kathleen J. "Kathy" Sheran is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented District 19, which included portions of Blue Earth, Le Sueur, and Nicollet counties in the south central part of the state.
Erin Murphy is an American politician serving as Majority Leader of the Minnesota Senate since 2024. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represents District 64, which includes the Highland Park, Macalester-Groveland, Merriam Park, Summit Hill, and St. Anthony Park, neighborhoods of the city of Saint Paul in Ramsey County in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. She is a former Majority Leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association, and is also a registered nurse.
Debra L. Kiel is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2011. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, Kiel represents District 1B in northwest Minnesota, which includes the cities of Crookston and East Grand Forks and Norman, Polk, Clay and Red Lake Counties.
Sondra Erickson is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, she represented District 15A, which includes portions of Kanabec, Mille Lacs, and Sherburne counties in the west central part of the state. She is also a retired English teacher at Princeton High School in Princeton.
Michelle R. Benson is an American accountant, politician, and Republican member of the Minnesota Senate. She represents District 31, which includes portions of Anoka, Isanti and Sherburne counties in the northern Twin Cities metropolitan area. Benson is the Deputy Majority Leader of the Minnesota Senate.
Peggy Flanagan is an American politician and Native American activist serving as the 50th lieutenant governor of Minnesota since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Flanagan served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019.
Lisa Demuth is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, Demuth represents District 13A in central Minnesota, which includes the cities of St. Joseph and Cold Spring, and parts of Stearns County. She has served as leader of the House Republican caucus and minority leader of the House of Representatives since 2023.
Kelly Louise Morrison is an American physician and politician who is the U.S. Representative-elect for Minnesota's 3rd congressional district. Morrison was a member of the Minnesota Senate from 2023 to 2024. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, she represented District 45 in the western Twin Cities metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Minnetonka, Mound, Minnetrista, and Orono in Hennepin County. She served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023.
Patty Acomb is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Acomb represents District 45B in the western Twin Cities metropolitan area, which includes the city of Minnetonka and parts of Hennepin County.
Kaohly Her is a Hmong-American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Her represents District 64A, which includes parts of Saint Paul in Ramsey County, Minnesota.
Heather Keeler is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2021. A member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), Keeler represents District 4A in northwest Minnesota, including the city of Moorhead and parts of Clay County. Keeler is an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.