Name & occupation: Representative Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring – Speaker of the MN House of Representatives.
Previous Positions held: Representative for District 13A, ROCORI school board member, small business owner.
What was your first job and what was the most important lesson you took from it? My first job was as a car hop in Paynesville at the Frosty Mug, and I learned a lot about service from that job!
How can Minnesota legislators find common ground in an evenly-divided legislature in a highly-contentious political time? I’ve worked really hard over my time as a legislator, and now as Speaker of the House, to foster good relationships with members across the aisle while holding true to my principles and my duty to Minnesotans.
Challenge facing the people of Minnesota that you are working hard to address: We have a looming $6 billion deficit, fed by a Democrat spending spree last biennium where they spent an entire $18 billion budget surplus, raised taxes by another $10 billion on every Minnesotan, and imposed burdensome mandates on schools, small businesses, and local governments which raises costs even more. We need to return to responsible budgeting and take into account the real-world impacts of the policies we pass instead of writing laws that sound good in theory but just don’t work.
With Republicans in Washington seeking to shift some power to the states, what is one area of government where you would like to see Minnesota have more control? I’d like to see the state have more control over the rampant fraud that has taken place over the last 6 years, including the record COVID fraud that was the largest loss of COVID funds in the entire country. We need concrete steps to address this fraud and hold those who enable it responsible.