Speaker of the House

* 463 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155
651-296-0171

E-mail: rep.margaret.kelliher@house.mn
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Legislative Assistant: Debra Fastner 651-296-2208

Committee Assignments

Not a member of any Committee

Biographical Information

Home: Minneapolis 620 Morgan Ave. S., 55405; 612-377-9836
Occupation: Consultant
Education: B.A., history, political science, Gustavus Adolphus College; M.P.A., Harvard University
Elected: 1998
Term: 6th
Family: Married, spouse David, 2 children

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Margaret Anderson Kelliher grew up on a dairy farm in southern Minnesota. Her experiences there with four older brothers and a sister prepared her well for her current roles as a mother and Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

As Speaker, she has worked to make Minnesota a leader in energy, including guiding passage of the strongest renewable energy standard in the country. She also brought together a coalition of business, labor, agriculture and environmental leaders in support of a comprehensive transportation bill. The legislation became law following the first veto override of Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Throughout her life, Speaker Kelliher has been recognized by her peers for her leadership. She was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures. She also received a fellowship in leadership from the Bush Foundation. As a teenager, she served as state 4-H president.

Those rural roots gave Kelliher an early introduction to politics. She participated in State Capitol rallies during the 1980s farm crisis. After college, she worked as a legislative staffer for both House Speaker Bob Vanasek and Senate President Allan Spear.

Kelliher is a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College. She received her MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. At home in Minneapolis, she is better known to her husband and two children as a hockey mom. She enjoys fishing, running and visits to her childhood home, which her mother still owns and her brothers continue to farm..