Women who ran for Minnesota governor celebrate state electing first female governor
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Seventeen states have never had a woman as governor before Tuesday, Minnesota included. Until now.
On Tuesday, Minnesota elected its first female governor in Amy Klobuchar. But who paved the way for this historic first? At least a dozen women have run for governor in Minnesota from the 1990s to now with varying levels of success. The first serious candidate was former Lt. Gov. Joanne Benson.
Almost 30 years later, Benson said she's excited to finally see a woman in the governor's office.
“It was about time that Minnesota joined the ranks of the other states that have had women and men governors, so it'll be an interesting time for all of us,” Benson, 83, told MPR News.
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A lifelong Republican, Benson said she couldn’t help but be disappointed when Lisa Demuth didn’t win the governorship. But she said she wishes Klobuchar the best.
“I knew her from way back when,” Benson said. “I knew that she would be a formidable candidate to run against because of her long experience in her time. She was known. Being known makes a difference.”
Benson recalls being criticized as ‘too nice’
Criticism Benson received when running for the state Senate in the ‘80s still sticks in her mind.
“I remember the first time in 1986, which I lost by just a couple hundred votes, the thing that my opponent held against me was that I was too nice. So at that time, being a woman, I think, was looked at as, ‘She's too nice, therefore she will not be effective.’ And we disabused that notion early,” Benson said. “I am nice, but I also know how to do the job.”
When she later ran for governor, she “really didn't run with the idea that I was a woman.”
“I ran with the idea that I could provide a lot of expertise in the office, and I hoped that people would see me that way. And I was happy that so many people did.”
Benson ran in 1998 after encouragement from Republican former Gov. Al Quie.
“I think so highly of him, and I thought if he had confidence in me, maybe I could do it.”
Benson was a frontrunner for the Republican nomination until St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman entered the race. At the Republican state convention, Coleman drew more delegate votes, so Benson withdrew.
Still, Benson said she felt good about her campaign.
“The only two unusual candidates in that whole race was Jesse Ventura, who was of course from the outside, having not been in politics,” she said. (Ventura became governor.) “And then Joanne Benson, the first woman. I don't think, in the whole thing, it was a detriment to me being the first woman. I think it was looked at as kind of an interesting and exciting possibility.”
Benson wonders what would have happened if she were able to test her support on the ballot.
Former DFL candidate hopes Klobuchar win encourages other women
Margaret Anderson Kelliher was DFL House speaker when she ran for governor in 2010, hoping to turn the tide on a string of Republican governors in Minnesota. She lost the primary to Mark Dayton, who went on to become governor.
Now Minneapolis City Operations Officer, she was thrilled when she learned of Klobuchar’s win.
“One of the things that this will have a huge impact on is women running for more offices and having young girls and women see they can do these things, too. And I think that is one of the biggest benefits of all of this,” Kelliher said. “If you can see it, you can do it.”
“It will be hard for the person who's the first woman governor,” she said. “It will be because there is different scrutiny on women, and I just really hope that we stay focused on the policies and the practices that are happening.”
She’s excited about Klobuchar’s policies.
“She's very determined with an agenda that's going to help Minnesotans afford their lives,” Kelliher said, adding that she applauded Klobuchar’s acceptance speech when she talked about working in a bipartisan way.
“There may be things that for the people in the room at a victory party — at an Amy Klobuchar/DFL victory party — that they may disagree with from time to time, and I think that's part of the success of women in these executive leadership roles, is they know that that they need to be responsive to all of their voters,” she said.
Republican state representative has ‘great hope’ for Klobuchar
Patti Anderson also put her name in the hat for governor in 2010. She now represents a slice of the northeastern Twin Cities metro area in the Minnesota House.
When she ran for governor, she called herself a “Libertarian-style Republican.” She said she withdrew from the race when she didn’t think she would get the nomination. Anderson said being a woman isn’t what motivated her to run, but she did think it was harder 16 years ago to run as a woman.
“I think people look at a governor as an executive, and there are generally less women in those roles,” Anderson said. “So I think it was harder. I think the world has changed a lot, and women are filling a lot of the more executive-style roles across business, government and other states. I simply think it is much more accepted that a woman can and should be in this.”
Anderson said she wasn't surprised that Klobuchar won in Minnesota.
“Frankly, I have great hope that Sen. Klobuchar will be a good governor and she'll be involved heavily in managing the state and making some changes, because we've needed that.”
Gov.-elect Klobuchar will be sworn in on Jan. 4, 2027.
