Tina Smith

Tina Smith has served as Senator since January 2018. She moved to Minnesota the summer of 1984 with her new husband Archie. Her first job in Minnesota was at General Mills. Archie and she moved to St. Louis Park; had two sons, Sam and Mason (who are now married!), and found their life in Minnesota.

A few years later Tina started her own business, and at the same time got more active in community volunteering. That work led me her become a leader at Planned Parenthood, Chief of Staff for the Mayor of Minneapolis, and then Chief of Staff for Governor Dayton. When Mark asked her to run with him as Lt. Governor, she never looked back. Tina loved serving all Minnesotans as Lt. Governor, where every day she saw the spirit, creativity, and hard work that makes Minnesota so amazing.

In her first year in the Senate, Tina worked hard across party lines to get things done for Minnesotans. She helped write a number of pieces of legislation that have been passed into law, including one that expands resources for career and technical education, another that increases funding for states and tribes to address the opioid crisis, and the bipartisan Farm Bill that supports farmers and ranchers across the state.

The first thing Tina did in the Senate was to introduce legislation that takes on the big pharmaceutical companies to help lower the cost of prescription medicine. She helped write bipartisan legislation, signed into law, to expand and improve treatment and prevention for the opioid epidemic, and her legislation to expand mental health services into schools and communities was signed into law. She also worked across the aisle to pass a law expanding career and skills training, and introduced legislation to expand access to child care.

Food and agriculture is at the heart of Minnesota’s economy, which is why Tina fought for a spot on the Senate Agriculture Committee, where she worked hard to pass and sign into law a bipartisan Farm Bill that supports farmers and ranchers across the state. The Farm Bill included several provisions Tina authored to expand broadband in rural areas, strengthen conservation programs, and help new farmers get going.