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. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,281,565. It is Minnesota's most populous county and the 34th-most populous county in the U.S.; more than one in five Minnesotans live in Hennepin County. It is included in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul–Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area.
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.
Bloomington is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown Minneapolis and just south of the Interstate 494/694 Beltway. The population was 89,987 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's fifth-largest city.
Minnesota's 3rd congressional district encompasses the suburbs of Hennepin and Anoka counties to the west, south, and north of Minneapolis. The district, which is mostly suburban in character, includes a few farming communities on its far western edge and also inner-ring suburban areas on its eastern edge. The district includes the blue collar cities of Brooklyn Park and Coon Rapids to the north-east, middle-income Bloomington to the south, and higher-income Eden Prairie, Edina, Hopkins, Maple Grove, Plymouth, Minnetonka, and Wayzata to the west. Democrat Kelly Morrison currently represents the district in the U.S. House of Representatives, after being elected in 2024.
Saint Anthony West is a neighborhood in the Northeast community of Minneapolis.
Hennepin County Library is a public library system serving Hennepin County, Minnesota, US. The current iteration of Hennepin County Library was formed by the merger of urban Minneapolis Public Library and suburban Hennepin County Library on January 1, 2008. The system has 41 library locations, deposit collections at nursing homes and correctional facilities, mail service to the homebound, and extensive outreach services. With more than 4 million items in its collection, the Hennepin County Library system is one of the largest public libraries in the United States. The library is a department of Hennepin County Government. The library headquarters are in the Ridgedale Library in suburban Minnetonka. The library system has an eleven-member advisory Library Board appointed by the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners. It is a member of the Metropolitan Library Service Agency, a consortium of eight Twin Cities library systems.
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.
Joseph J. Mullery is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), he represented District 59A, which includes parts of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, which is part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Hennepin Technical College is a public technical school with two campuses in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Diane Loeffler was an American politician and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented District 60A, which includes the thirteen neighborhoods of Northeast Minneapolis, which is part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. She was also a health policy analyst and planner for Hennepin County.
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 was an American politician and member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented District 60, which includes portions of the city of Minneapolis in Hennepin County. District 60 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.
