Updated April 10, 2021
Much of the information here came from the wonderful work of Minnesota’s League of Women Voters (LWV). You can review their whole list MN women firsts.
On this page, we highlight mostly women of color who we identified as early local leaders in our cities and counties. Then we added links to provide more information about each. We certainly have not made an exhaustive study on the local level so we apologize if we missed some additional noteworthy election firsts.
Minnesota Mayors
Lillian Cox Gault Mayor of St. Peter
Gault is our earliest MN woman Mayor since she was elected the first female mayor of St. Peter in 1921. She was quoted as saying “I see no reason any woman should not enter politics.” If you are unfamiliar with St. Peter, it is a town of about 12,000 people located about 10 miles north of Mankato. Mayor Gault is listed in 1921 on this Wikipedia list of first women mayors (20th century). Source: Wikipedia – List of first women mayors (20th century) and CatalogAccess.com E1616 – Photograph, Cabinet and BloxImages.com
Sharon Sayles Belton Mayor of Minneapolis
Belton served as mayor of Minneapolis from 1994 until 2001. She was the first African American and first woman to hold that position. More information is at: Finance & Commerce Icon and Wikipedia – Sharon Sayles Belton
Emily Larson Mayor of Duluth
Emily Larson was elected Mayor of Duluth in November 2015, the first female mayor in the city’s history. She won reelection in 2019. More information is at: Wikipedia – Emily Larson
Kim Norton Mayor of Rochester
She was elected to become the first female mayor of Rochester in a nonpartisan race in November 2018. She served in the MN House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. She said she decided to get out of running for re-election in 2016 there because she was tired of partisan politics. More information is at: Wikipedia – Kim Norton
Maria Regan Gonzalez Mayor of Richfield
Maria Regan Gonzalez was elected in 2018 as the city of Richfield’s youngest and first mayor of color. She is also the first Latina mayor in Minnesota history. Richfield is a suburb of Minneapolis with a population of about 36,000. More information is at: Biz Journal Twin Cities
Sarah Jane Nicoll Mayor of Sartell
She was the first female mayor of of Sartell. She served for four years as mayor and decided not to run for re-election in 2018. Sartell is a city of about 18,000 in Benton and Stearns counties that straddles both sides of the Mississippi River. It is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area. More information is at: SC Times
County or City Position Firsts
Toni Carter Ramsey County Commissioner
Carter became the first African-American county commissioner in the state in 2005. In 2020, she became the first African-American county Board chair on the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners. More information is at: Ramsey County News
Angela Conley Hennepin County Commissioner
She was elected in 2018, becoming the first African American to serve as a Hennepin County commissioner. More information is at: Hennepin County Leadership
Irene Fernando Hennepin County Commissioner
When she was elected in 2018, Irene Fernando became the first Filipino American to serve as a Hennepin County commissioner. More information is at: Vote Irene
Mandy Meisner Anoka County Commissioner
Meisner is the first Asian American to serve as an Anoka County Commissioner. She was elected in 2018. More information is at: Anoka County Directory
Andrea Jenkins Minneapolis City Council Member
Assuming office in 2018, Jenkins became the first transgender woman elected to a major US city council—and the first openly transgender Black woman to be elected to public office in the United States. More information is at: Wikipedia – Andrea Jenkins
Rhoda Mhiripiri-Reed Superintendent of Hopkins School District
She is the first woman and the first person of color to serve as a Hopkins School District superintendent. Hopkins is a suburb of Minneapolis with a population of about 18,000. More information at: Hopkins Schools