Tina Smith: “I am so proud to be here. This is my first time speaking on the Senate floor, and because I represent the great State of…”

“I am so proud to be here. This is my first time speaking on the Senate floor, and because I represent the great State of Minnesota, I thought I would do the polite thing and start out by properly introducing myself. I came to Minnesota right out of business school, just married, with my husband Archie, in a beat-up orange car, and with a ton of student loans. Most people who have never been to Minnesota know us for our weather, but we have a thriving business community with a number of Fortune 500 companies, and I got my start working for one of them: General Mills. The winters were every bit as cold as we had heard, but Archie and I fell in love with Minnesota anyway and, before long, we put down roots. We have two sons, Sam and Mason, and instead of just building a career, suddenly we were building a life. I am so glad Archie and my dad Harlan, whose 88th birthday is this Saturday, could come to Washington to cheer me on today. So that is the story of how I became a Minnesotan. The story of how I wound up in the Senate really starts in 1990. I had left General Mills and started a small business that I ran out of our house. Sam was 3, Mason was 1. It was a busy, exciting, and happy time for us. My parents had raised me to believe that if you are truly going to be part of a community, it is not enough to just pay your taxes and keep your lawn nice and say hi at the grocery store. You have to find a way to get involved in civic life.…”