Jennifer A. McEwen ( ; born May 14, 1977) is a

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

politician and member of the

Minnesota Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any U.S. state legislature. Floor sessions are hel ...

. A member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), she represents Senate District 7, which includes the city of

Duluth , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

in St. Louis County.

Early life, education, and career

McEwen is a Duluth native who had received her

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...

. She then attended the

Hamline University School of Law Hamline University School of Law was a private law school affiliated with Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The School of Law was founded in 1972 as the Midwestern School of Law by a group of legal professionals. In 1976, Midwestern ...

, earning a J.D., after which she became an attorney for disabled workers and board president of the Damiano Center, where she has worked with families struggling with food security. McEwen is a member of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...

(DSA).

Minnesota State Senate

In 2020, McEwen challenged incumbent Senator

Erik Simonson Erik Simonson (born May 26, 1968) is a Minnesota politician and former member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), he represented District 7 which includes the city of Duluth in St. Louis C ...

for the DFL endorsement in District 7. She won the endorsement and the primary, with 77% of the vote. She then won the general election against

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

nominee Donna Bergstrom, a second-time candidate who ran against Simonson in 2016, with just over 68% of the vote. McEwen was reelected in 2022. In 2023, she wrote and sponsored the Protect Reproductive Options Act, which protects abortion rights in Minnesota, after ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and st ...

'' was overturned in 2022. McEwen also wrote and supported legislation to reestablish passenger rail service between the Twin Cities and Duluth, the

Northern Lights Express The ''Northern Lights Express'' (''NLX'') is a planned higher-speed rail service that would run between Minneapolis and Duluth primarily in the U.S. state of Minnesota. A portion of the proposed line would run through neighboring Wisconsin to ser ...

. McEwen serves on the following committees: * Ranking Minority Member: Labor and Industry Policy * Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Legacy Finance * Transportation Finance and Policy

Explanatory notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McEwen, Jen, Amy 1977 births Democratic Party Minnesota state senators University of Maine alumni Hamline University School of Law alumni People from Duluth, Minnesota Democratic Socialists of America politicians from Minnesota Living people

Early life, education, and career

Minnesota State Senate

See also

Explanatory notes

References