Tina Smith
United States Senator from MN
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Biography
Tina Smith is a Democratic Minnesota senator originally appointed in 2018 and elected in her own right in 2018 and 2020.
Tina Flint Smith serves as the junior U.S. Senator from Minnesota, a Democrat appointed in January 2018 to fill the seat vacated by Al Franken's resignation and elected later that year in a special election, then to a full term in 2020. A New Mexico native who settled in Minnesota, Smith worked in marketing and as a senior executive at Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota before entering government as chief of staff to Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak and then to Governor Mark Dayton. She served as Minnesota's lieutenant governor from 2015 until her Senate appointment. In the Senate, she sits on the HELP, Banking, Agriculture, Indian Affairs committees and the Joint Economic Committee, focusing on mental health care, reproductive rights, rural broadband, housing affordability, and clean-energy deployment. In February 2025, Smith announced she would not seek re-election in 2026, citing desire to spend more time with family and aging parents, though she has pledged to serve her remaining term with full commitment to her constituents.