Tina Liebling

Tina Liebling was born in 1953 in Minneapolis, the second of five children. Her father taught film and photography at the University of Minnesota. With limited family support, she worked her way through college as a waitress, a nurse's aide at Hennepin County Medical Center, and in a shoe repair shop.

After college, Liebling worked as a public defender for the Office of the Cook County Public Defender in the Chicago area, where her three children were born. She moved to Rochester, Minnesota in 1994 when her husband, a physician, accepted a position at Mayo Clinic. She established a solo law practice in Rochester, focusing on criminal law.

Liebling made history as the first person from Olmsted County elected to the Minnesota Legislature with a Democratic-Farmer-Labor label. She currently resides in Rochester with her husband Mark and their three children: David and Samuel and Hannah .

Education

Liebling earned her B.A. in Spanish from the University of Minnesota, graduating magna cum laude. She completed her M.S. in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her J.D. from Boston University Law School, graduating cum laude.

Political Experience

Liebling first ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2002 as the DFL-endorsed candidate but finished second in a three-way race. She was elected in 2004 and has won ten consecutive terms, currently serving her 11th term.

District Representation: She represents District 24B, which consists almost entirely of Rochester in Olmsted County, southeastern Minnesota.

Committee Leadership: Liebling serves as Co-Chair of the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee and holds positions on the Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee and Health Finance and Policy Committee. She previously chaired the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee and served as chair of the HHS Finance Division , which controlled approximately one-third of the state's budget.

Notable Achievement: In 2018, she announced her candidacy for Governor of Minnesota but withdrew from the race in mid-March.