List of speakers of the Minnesota House of Representatives

This is a list of speakers of the Minnesota House of Representatives. The speaker of the House is usually the leader of the majority party, and is the most powerful figure in the House.

Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives
Incumbent Lisa Demuth since February 6, 2025
Term length	Two years, no term limit
Inaugural holder	John S. Watrous
Formation	December 2, 1857
Succession	Third
Website	http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/

Territorial

#	Speaker	Took office	Left office	Party/caucus
1	Joseph W. Furber	1849	1851	Whig
2	Michael E. Ames	1851	1852	Democratic
3	John D. Ludden	1852	1853	Unknown
4	David Day	1853	1854	Unknown
5	Nathan C. D. Taylor	1854	1855	Unknown
6	James S. Norris	1855	1856	Democratic
7	Charles Gardner	1856	1857	Unknown
8	Joseph W. Furber	1857	1857	Whig

State

#	Speaker	Took office	Left office	Party/caucus	Notes	Session
1	John S. Watrous	2 December 1857	12 March 1858	Unknown	Minnesota Legislators Past & Present lists Watrous' party affiliation as "Not Available," while the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library's list of Speakers of the House of Representatives lists "R?," indicating that the MLRL does not know what Watrous' party affiliation was, and is merely guessing that he might have been a Republican; on the other hand, the Journal of the House of Representatives for the 1st Session shows that Watrous was elected Speaker in a party-line vote by a majority Democratic House of Representatives, with the Democratic majority voting for him and the Republican minority voting for James Beach Wakefield, and Watrous was, in 1859, given a federal civil service appointment by the Buchanan Administration at a time when patronage was the rule for civil service appointments	1st
2	George Bradley	12 March 1858	6 December 1859	Unknown	Minnesota Legislators Past & Present lists Bradley's party affiliation as "Not Available," while the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library's list of Speakers of the House of Representatives lists "R?," indicating that the MLRL does not know what Bradley's party affiliation was, and is merely guessing that he might have been a Republican; on the other hand, Bradley was elected Speaker at a time when the Democrats held a 55 percent voting majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives, and, in 1860, received a federal civil service appointment from the Buchanan Administration, similar to Watrous
3	Amos Coggswell	7 December 1859	7 January 1861	Republican		2nd
4	Jared Benson	8 January 1861	5 January 1863	Republican		3rd
						4th
5	Charles D. Sherwood	6 January 1863	4 January 1864	Republican		5th
6	Jared Benson	5 January 1864	1864?	Republican		6th
7	Thomas H. Armstrong	1864?	1865	Republican	Unclear whether he took office in 1864 or 1865	7th
8	James B. Wakefield	1866	1866	Republican	Served as a U.S. Representative	8th
9	John Q. Farmer	1867	1868	Whig/Republican		9th
						10th
10	Chester D. Davidson	1869	1869	Republican		11th
11	John L. Merriam	1870	1871	Republican		12th
						13th
12	A.R. Hall	1872	1874	Republican		14th
						15th
						16th
13	William R. Kinyon	1875	1876	Republican		17th
						18th
14	John L. Gibbs	1877	1877	Republican		19th
15	Charles A. Gilman	1878	1879	Republican		20th
						21st
16	Loren Fletcher	1881	1885	Republican		22nd
						23rd
17	John L. Gibbs	1885	1887	Republican		24th
18	William Rush Merriam	1887	1889	Republican	Served as Governor of Minnesota	25th
19	Charles H. Graves	1889	1891	Republican		26th
20	Ezra T. Champlin	1891	1893	Alliance		27th
21	William E. Lee	1893	1895	Republican		28th
22	Samuel Rinnah Van Sant	1895	1897	Republican	Served as Governor of Minnesota	29th
23	John D. Jones	1897	1899	Republican		30th
24	Arthur N. Dare	1899	1901	Republican		31st
25	M.J. Dowling	1901	1903	Republican		32nd
26	Leverett W. Babcock	1903	1905	Republican		33rd
27	Frank Clague	1905	1907	Republican	Served as a U.S. Representative	34th
28	Lawrence H. Johnson	1907	1909	Republican		35th
29	Anton J. Rockne	1909	1911	Republican		36th
30	Howard H. Dunn	1911	1913	Republican		37th
31	Henry Rines	1913	1915	Conservative	Served as Minnesota Treasurer	38th
32	H. H. Flowers	1915	1917	Conservative		39th
33	Ralph J. Parker	January 1917	January 1919	Conservative		40th
34	William I. Nolan	January 1919	January 1925	Conservative		41st
						42nd
						43rd
35	John A. Johnson	January 1925	January 1931	Conservative		44th
						45th
						46th
36	Oscar A. Swenson	January 1931	January 1933	Conservative		47th
37	Charles Munn	January 1933	January 1935	Liberal		48th
38	George W. Johnson	January 1935	January 1937	Conservative		49th
39	Harold H. Barker	January 1937	January 1939	Liberal		50th
40	Lawrence M. Hall	January 1939	January 1949	Conservative	Longest-serving speaker	51st
						52nd
						53rd
						54th
						55th
41	John A. Hartle	January 4, 1949	January 6, 1955	Conservative		56th
						57th
						58th
42	Alfred I. Johnson	January 6, 1955	January 5, 1959	Liberal		59th
						60th
43	Edwin J. Chilgren	January 5, 1959	January 7, 1963	Liberal		61st
						62nd
44	Lloyd L. Duxbury	January 7, 1963	January 1971	Conservative		63rd
						64th
						65th
						66th
45	A.W. Dirlam	January 1971	January 1973	Conservative		67th
46	Martin Olav Sabo	January 1973	January 1979	DFL	Served as a U.S. Representative	68th
						69th
						70th
47	Rod Searle	January 1979	January 1980	Independent-Republican		71st
48	Fred C. Norton	January 1980	January 1981	DFL	Served on Minnesota Court of Appeals
49	Harry A. Sieben	January 1981	January 1985	DFL		72nd
						73rd
50	David M. Jennings	January 1985	January 1987	Independent-Republican		74th
51	Fred C. Norton	January 1987	June 1987	DFL	Served on Minnesota Court of Appeals	75th
52	Robert Vanasek	June 1987	January 6, 1992	DFL		75th
						76th
						77th
53	Dee Long	January 6, 1992	September 15, 1993	DFL	First woman to serve as speaker	77th
						78th
54	Irv Anderson	September 1993	January 1997	DFL		78th
						79th
55	Phil Carruthers	January 1997	January 1999	DFL		80th
56	Steve Sviggum	January 1999	January 2007	Republican		81st
						82nd
						83rd
						84th
57	Margaret Anderson Kelliher	January 2007	January 2011	DFL		85th
						86th
58	Kurt Zellers	January 4, 2011	January 8, 2013	Republican		87th
59	Paul Thissen	January 8, 2013	January 6, 2015	DFL	Appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2018	88th
60	Kurt Daudt	January 6, 2015	January 8, 2019	Republican		89th
						90th
61	Melissa Hortman	January 8, 2019	January 14, 2025	DFL		91st
						92nd
						93rd
—	—	January 14, 2025	February 6, 2025	Vacant	Lisa Demuth (Republican) was purportedly elected on the aforementioned date; the Minnesota Supreme Court invalidated her election, finding that the House did not have a quorum to transact the business of electing her	94th
62	Lisa Demuth	February 6, 2025	Incumbent	Republican	First African-American speaker, first biracial speaker, first female Republican Speaker.[1][2]
Source: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library[3]

Notes on Minnesota political party names

• Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party: On April 15, 1944, the state Democratic Party and the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party merged and created the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL). It is affiliated with the national Democratic Party.
• Republican Party of Minnesota: From November 15, 1975, to September 23, 1995, the name of the state Republican party was the Independent-Republican party (I-R). The party has always been affiliated with the national Republican Party.

In 1913, Minnesota legislators began to be elected on nonpartisan ballots. Nonpartisanship also was an historical accident that occurred in the 1913 session when a bill to provide for no party elections of judges and city and county officers was amended to include the Legislature in the belief that it would kill the bill. Legislators ran and caucused as "Liberals" or "Conservatives" roughly equivalent in most years to Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican, respectively. The law was changed in 1973, in 1974, House members again ran with party designation.

Speaker Emeritus

Under House rules, former speakers who are serving in the House are given the title of Speaker Emeritus. While the position has no formal power, the title is seen as a sign of respect for former speakers.^[4]

See also

• List of Minnesota state legislatures