House Speaker Representative Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring Named to USA Today’s “Women of the Year” List

(KNSI) – A local state representative’s national profile is on the rise.

House Speaker Lisa Demuth has been named to USA Today’s 2025 “Women of the Year” list, putting her in the same company as the CEO of mortgage giant Fannie Mae, a WNBA all-star, a 26-year Today Show veteran, and a United States congresswoman. Demuth’s emergence in state politics has been meteoric with her start in public service coming on the ROCORI School Board. She saw an open spot and decided that having a personal stake in ROCORI’s future gave her a reason to get involved.

“Knowing that I had kids in the district and kids that had already graduated, being a part of a community, I think I just saw an opportunity that something needed to be done, and no one else had stepped up. And even though I didn’t feel like I maybe had all the answers, I knew that I would be committed to the job and I would work really hard.”

After over a decade as a non-partisan school board member, Demuth graduated to campaigning for the state legislature in 2018. She says her reasons for taking on the new role were similar to why she got involved in education. Simply put, there was an opening, and no one else was jumping at the opportunity.

Demuth believes the school board was good preparation for her job in St. Paul. “What I recognized is that I wasn’t going to be able to please everyone, no one can, but trying to make the best decisions with the information at the time that would benefit the most people is what I tried to do on the school board. That definitely then informed the work I have been doing as a legislator now.”

Demuth became the leader of what was then a minority Republican caucus in early 2023. After a tight election this past November, the Minnesota GOP is up to 67 elected members, making Demuth the state House speaker. She is the first biracial person in Minnesota to hold those positions.

Her tenure as speaker has already seen historic circumstances surrounding it as House Democrats boycotted the session for over a month. Demuth explains that even though the current makeup of the House is 67-66 in favor of Republicans, a tie is possible pending the results of a special election later this month. Republicans and Democrats have equal membership on all state committees except for the newly created Fraud Prevention and Agency Oversight Committee, which is 5-3 in favor of the GOP.

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