Kurt Zellers | |
---|---|
58th Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives | |
In office January 4, 2011 –January 7, 2013 | |
Preceded by | Margaret Anderson Kelliher |
Succeeded by | Paul Thissen |
Minority Leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives | |
In office June 23,2009 –January 3,2011 | |
Preceded by | Marty Seifert |
Succeeded by | Paul Thissen |
Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives | |
In office March 3,2003 –January 5,2015 | |
Preceded by | Rich Stanek |
Succeeded by | Dennis Smith |
Constituency | District 32B (2003–13) District 34B (2013–15) |
Personal details | |
Born | Grand Forks,North Dakota,U.S. | October 16,1969
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Kimberly |
Children | 2 |
Residence(s) | Maple Grove,Minnesota,U.S. |
Education | University of North Dakota (BS) |
Kurt Zellers (born October 16,1969) is an American politician who served as speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013 and minority leader from 2009 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota,he represented the 34B district in Hennepin County. He was a candidate in the 2014 Minnesota gubernatorial election,losing in the Republican primary.
Zellers was born in Grand Forks,North Dakota and raised on a farm near Devils Lake,graduating from Devils Lake Central High School in 1988. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the University of North Dakota,where he was a member of the UND football team.
He worked as communications director for U.S. Senator Rod Grams from 1994 to 2000,and as communications director for the Minnesota House Republican Caucus from 2000 to 2003 before being elected to the House himself. After his election,he took a position as a senior account executive with a Minneapolis public relations firm. [1] [2]
Zellers was first elected in a special election on February 25,2003. The seat had become vacant when Representative Rich Stanek resigned after being appointed Minnesota's Commissioner of Public Safety by Governor Tim Pawlenty. Zellers has been reelected in every election since then. [1]
Zellers became an assistant majority leader in 2003 and,after House control was won by the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) in the 2006 elections,continued as an assistant minority leader. During the 2009 to 2010 legislative biennium,he was a member of the House Commerce and Labor Committee and the Taxes Committee. He also served on the Commerce and Labor Subcommittee for the Labor and Consumer Protection Division,and on the Finance Subcommittee for the Transportation and Transit Policy and Oversight Division. [1]
On June 23,2009,Zellers was elected by the House Republican Caucus to succeed Representative Marty Seifert as Minority Leader. Seifert had stepped down to focus on a potential campaign for governor. On November 6,2010,Zellers was selected by his caucus to serve as Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives for the 2011 to 2012 legislative session. [3]
On February 24,2014,Zellers announced that he would not seek reelection to the House,in order to concentrate on his gubernatorial campaign. [4] He was succeeded by Dennis Smith on January 6,2015.
On June 23, 2013, Zellers announced his candidacy in the 2014 Minnesota gubernatorial election. [5] He was defeated in the Republican primary on August 12, 2014, by the party's endorsed candidate, Jeff Johnson.
The Republican Party of Minnesota is the state affiliate of the Republican Party in Minnesota and the oldest active political party in the state. Founded in 1855, the party is headquartered in Edina, and the current chairman is David Hann.
Steven A. Sviggum is a Minnesota politician, a former member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, and an executive assistant to and communications director for the Republican caucus in the Minnesota Senate. A former Speaker and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Sviggum represented District 28B in the southeastern part of the state. The area was known as District 25A until the 1982 legislative redistricting, and then as District 26A until the 1992 redistricting, and has included all or portions of Dakota, Dodge, Goodhue, Olmsted, Steele, Wabasha, Waseca and Winona counties.
Martin John "Marty" Seifert is a former Republican Minority Leader and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. He represented District 21A, a predominantly rural district in southwestern Minnesota that includes portions of Lyon, Redwood and Yellow Medicine counties, and the cities of Marshall and Redwood Falls. In 2010 and 2014, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Governor of Minnesota.
Paul Thissen is an American politician and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. He previously served as the Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and DFL Minority Leader. Thissen was the longest-serving leader of the Minnesota House Democrats since Martin Olav Sabo in the 1970s. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), he represented District 61B in south Minneapolis. First elected in 2002, Thissen was reelected every two years through 2016. On April 17, 2018, Governor Mark Dayton appointed Thissen to the Minnesota Supreme Court. He was sworn in on May 14, 2018. He is the first person to have served both as Minnesota House Speaker and on the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Margaret Anderson Kelliher is an American politician, Director of the Minneapolis Department of Public Works, former Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and a former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, she represented District 60A, which includes portions of the city of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, located in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. First elected in 1999, she served until 2011, also serving as the Speaker from 2007 to 2011. She is the second woman to hold the position of House speaker. She was an unsuccessful candidate for the DFL nomination for Governor of Minnesota in the 2010 gubernatorial election, losing to former Senator Mark Dayton. Anderson left the Minnesota House of Representatives at the conclusion of her term in 2011 and re-entered politics when she ran for the DFL nomination to the U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota's 5th congressional district in 2018, losing to Ilhan Omar. Since 2019 Kelliher, has worked in transportation management roles for the government, first as Commissioner of MnDOT, and later as Director of Public Works for the City of Minneapolis. She currently serves as the City Operations Officer for the City of Minneapolis.
The 2010 Minnesota gubernatorial election was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, to elect the 40th Governor of the U.S. state of Minnesota for a four-year term to begin in January 2011. The general election was contested by the major party candidates State Representative Tom Emmer (R–Delano), former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton (DFL), and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner. After a very close race, Dayton was elected governor. Emmer would be elected to the United States House of Representatives four years later.
Thomas M. Bakk is a Minnesota politician. He served in the Minnesota Legislature from 1995 to 2023 and is a former majority leader and minority leader.
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.
Thomas Earl Emmer Jr. is an American attorney and politician who has served as majority whip in the United States House of Representatives since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he has represented Minnesota's 6th congressional district since 2015.
Rodney W. "Rod" Hamilton is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, he represented District 22B, which includes all or portions of Cottonwood, Jackson, Nobles and Redwood counties in the southwestern part of the state. He is also a local pork producer.
Pamela J. Myhra is an American politician and served as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives during the 87th and 88th legislative sessions. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, she represented portions of Dakota and Scott counties in the southern Twin Cities metropolitan area. During her first term representing Minnesota House District 40A; January 4, 2011 to January 7, 2013; Myhra served as a member of the Capital Investment, Education Finance, Education Policy and Tax committees. During her second term representing Minnesota House District 56A; January 8, 2013 to January 5, 2015; Myhra served as the minority lead member on the Early Childhood and Youth Development Policy committee and as a member of the Education Finance and Tax committees. In her second term she was appointed the minority party House legislative liaison to the Minnesota Early Learning Council and to the Minnesota Youth Council.
Kurt Louis Daudt is an American politician and former Minority Leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives. He is also a former Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, he represented District 27B, which included portions of Anoka, Isanti, and Sherburne counties in east-central Minnesota, north of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. He lives on his family farm in Crown, Minnesota.
The 2011 Minnesota state government shutdown was a government shutdown affecting the U.S. state of Minnesota. The shutdown was the result of a fiscal dispute between the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) Governor Mark Dayton and the Republican-majority Minnesota Legislature, that was not resolved by the constitutional deadline on June 30. The Republican caucuses and their leaders demanded bigger spending cuts, and for the budget shortfall to be met without tax increases, while Dayton demanded some tax increases. The shutdown started at midnight on July 1, and ended after a budget bill was passed and signed on July 20.
The 2014 Minnesota gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014, to elect the governor of Minnesota concurrently with the election to Minnesota's Class II U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Minnesota on November 4, 2014. All of Minnesota's executive officers were up for election as well as all the seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives, several state judicial seats, a United States Senate seat, all of Minnesota's eight seats in the United States House of Representatives, and several seats for local offices. A primary election was held on August 12, 2014, to nominate major political party candidates for partisan offices and candidates for nonpartisan offices.
The 2014 Minnesota House of Representatives election was held in the U.S. state of Minnesota on November 4, 2014, to elect members to the House of Representatives of the 89th Minnesota Legislature. A primary election was held in several districts on August 12, 2014.
The 2018 Minnesota gubernatorial election took place on November 6, to elect the 41st Governor of Minnesota as incumbent Democratic (DFL) Governor Mark Dayton chose not to run for re-election for a third term. The Democratic nominee was U.S. Representative Tim Walz from Minnesota's 1st congressional district while the Republican Party nominated Hennepin County commissioner Jeff Johnson for a second consecutive time. The Independence Party of Minnesota did not field a candidate for the first time since 1994. Going into the election polls showed Walz ahead; the race was characterized as lean or likely DFL.
On January 3, 2019, the first day of the 116th United States Congress and two months after the 2018 U.S. House elections, the incoming members of the U.S. House of Representatives held an election for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. This was the 126th U.S. speaker election since the office was created in 1789.
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.
The Ninety-second Minnesota Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota from January 5, 2021, to January 3, 2023. It is composed of the Senate and House of Representatives, based on the results of the 2020 Senate election and 2020 House election.