Hennepin County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named for the 17th-century explorer Louis Hennepin. It extends from Minneapolis to the suburbs and outlying cities in the western part of the county. Its natural areas are covered by extensive woods, hills, and lakes.
Brooklyn Park is a suburban city on the west bank of the Mississippi River, upstream from downtown Minneapolis in northern Hennepin County. It is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 86,478 at the 2020 census. The city still has undeveloped land and farms, including the historic Eidem Homestead, a 1900s working farm that is a popular tourist attraction for families and school field trips. Brooklyn Park is considered both a second- and third-tier suburb of Minneapolis, because much of the land north of 85th Avenue was developed after 2000.
Osseo is a small city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, it has a population of 2,688.
Bethel University is a private Baptist Christian university and seminary in Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1871 as a seminary and is affiliated with Converge. The university enrolls 5,600 students in undergraduate, graduate, and seminary programs. Its main campus is situated on about 290 acres on the east side of Lake Valentine just south of Interstate 694.
Satveer Singh Chaudhary is an American criminal defense and immigration lawyer. He is also a politician and a former member of the Minnesota State Senate and the Minnesota House of Representatives serving from 1996 to 2010.
Karen J. Clark is an American politician and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented District 62A, which included portions of the city of Minneapolis in the Twin Cities metropolitan area including portions of the Whittier, Phillips, Ventura Village, Seward, and Lyn-Lake neighborhoods. She was the longest serving openly lesbian member to serve in a state legislature in the United States. On December 8, 2017, Clark announced in a press release that she would not be running for reelection.
Gen Olson is a retired teacher and Republican politician who is a former member of the Minnesota Senate representing portions of Hennepin and Wright counties in the western Twin Cities metropolitan area. She was the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota in the 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial election and also unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the 1994 United States Senate election in Minnesota.
Linda Lee Berglin is a Minnesota politician and a former member of the Minnesota Senate who represented District 61, which includes portions of the city of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, which is in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. A Democrat, she was first elected to the Senate in 1980, and was re-elected in each election until she resigned on August 15, 2011, to take a position with Hennepin County. Prior to the 1982 and 1992 redistricting, the area was known as District 59 and District 60, respectively.
Linda Higgins is a Minnesota politician who represented the second district of Hennepin County as county commissioner from late 2012 to January 2019. Higgins is a former member of the Minnesota Senate representing District 58, which included portions of the city of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, which is in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. A Democrat, she was first elected to the Senate in 1996, and was re-elected in 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2010. She served as a majority whip from 2001 to 2006. In the fall of 2011, she announced that she would not seek reelection after the current term ended in 2012. However, when Hennepin County District 2 Commissioner Mark Stenglein announced in June 2012 that he would resign, Higgins decided to run for that position. On May 20, 2012, she was endorsed by the DFL party for the position, and won the election in November. In 2014, she ran unopposed and was reelected. She served as the Vice-Chair of the County Board, and Chair of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. She retired from the county board in January 2019.
Hennepin Technical College is a public technical school with two campuses in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Jeffrey D. Hayden is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), he represented District 62, which includes portions of south Minneapolis in Hennepin County in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Bobby Joe Champion is an American attorney and politician serving as a member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), he represents the 59th district, which includes portions of downtown and north Minneapolis in Hennepin County. He is the incumbent President of the Minnesota Senate.
Carolyn D. Laine is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented District 41 in the north-central Twin Cities metropolitan area. She also previously represented District 41B in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Gerald F. "Jerry" Newton is an American politician and decorated non-commissioned officer who has served in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2023. He previously served in the House from 2009 to 2017 and in the Minnesota Senate from 2017 to 2023. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Newton represents District 35B in the northern Twin Cities metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Coon Rapids and Andover and parts of Anoka County.
Ann Wynia is an American politician who served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1977 to 1989. A member of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, Wynia represented portions of the city of St. Paul and served as Majority Leader from 1987 to 1989. In 1989 Governor Rudy Perpich appointed her Commissioner of Minnesota's Department of Human Services until 1990. She was the Democratic Party's nominee for United States Senate in the 1994 election. After a defeat by U.S. Congressman Rod Grams, Wynia served as the President of North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from 1997 until her retirement in 2010.
Barbara J. Goodwin is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented District 41, which included portions of Anoka, Hennepin, and Ramsey counties in the northern Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Benjamin Allen Kruse is an American politician and a former member of the Minnesota Senate who represented District 47, which included portions of Anoka and Hennepin counties in the northern Twin Cities metropolitan area. A Republican, he is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Burnet, based in Minnesota.
Kari Dziedzic is an American politician and member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represents District 60, which includes portions of the city of Minneapolis in Hennepin County. Her district is also notable for including part of the University of Minnesota. In 2022, she was selected by her caucus to serve as Majority Leader for the 93rd Minnesota Legislature. She stepped down from leadership after the first session due to a cancer diagnosis. Before holding elected office, Dziedzic was executive assistant to U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone.
Betty A. Adkins was an American politician.
The 2022 Hennepin County Attorney election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the county attorney of Hennepin County, Minnesota. On September 1, 2021, incumbent county attorney Michael O. Freeman announced that he would retire at the end of his term after 24 years in the role. Former Hennepin County Chief Public Defender Mary Moriarty defeated former Hennepin County judge Martha Holton Dimick and became the first openly LGBTQ woman elected as Hennepin County Attorney.
