Kate Knuth (born May 15, 1981) is an American politician who served as a member of the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint Pa ...

for District 50B from 2007 to 2013. She was a

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is the Minnesota affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party. As of 2022, it controls four of Minnesota's eight U.S. House seats, both of its U.S. Senate seats, the Minnesota House of Represen ...

candidate for

mayor of Minneapolis This is a list of mayors of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The current mayor is Jacob Frey (DFL). Minneapolis From 1867 to 1878 mayors were elected for a 1-year term. Beginning in 1878 the term was extended to 2 years. As the city became larger and mor ...

in the city's 2021 election.

Early life and education

Katherine "Kate" Knuth was born on May 15, 1981, to parents

Daniel Knuth Daniel J. Knuth (July 3, 1945 – October 5, 2020) was an American politician, educator, and environmental consultant. Early life and education Knuth was born in Mabel, Minnesota and graduated from Mabel High School. He received his bachelor ...

and Joann Knuth. As an undergraduate at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, Knuth studied

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

. She worked at the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

and served as National President of the coed Venturing program of the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

. After graduating with 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 ...

, Knuth spent a year in Norway as a

Fulbright student The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

, studying how the country's strong environmental ethic affected the development of oil into one of its major industries. She then moved to England to continue her education, completing a

M.Sc A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in biodiversity conservation. She spent three weeks in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

trying to secure interviews with members of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

for a study of environmental voting records and leadership. In late August 2005, while Knuth was finishing her master's thesis,

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

hit

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

and the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississ ...

. Knuth was concerned about how an extreme weather event intersected with racial and economic injustice in ways that made many people suffer. She had been concerned about

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, and decided to run for public office.

Career

Minnesota legislature

On November 7, 2006, Knuth won the seat in the

vacated by the retiring

Char Samuelson Char Samuelson (born 1945) is a former Republican member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, serving from 2003 to 2007. She was elected from Minnesota 50B, which during her tenure in office served New Brighton, Arden Hills, and Shoreview. S ...

. She was one of the youngest representatives to serve in the 85th Legislature. At the

Minnesota State Capitol The Minnesota State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Minnesota, in its capital city of Saint Paul. It houses the Minnesota Senate, Minnesota House of Representatives, the office of the Attorney General and the office o ...

, Knuth focused mainly on

and toxic chemical policy reform, issues in the

Minnesota Department of Commerce The Minnesota Department of Commerce is the governmental agency in the U.S. State of 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 po ...

, and the state budget. While in the legislature, Knuth enrolled in a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

program in conservation sciences at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. After

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

in 2012, Knuth was drawn into the same legislative district as her Democratic–Farmer–Labor colleague Representative Tom Tillberry. She did not seek reelection in 2012.

Post-legislative career

After her stint in the legislature, Knuth returned to work as the Director for the Boreas Leadership Program at the

Institute on the Environment. On June 19, 2017, the City of Minneapolis hired Knuth as chief resilience officer, a new position that coordinated the city's work on urban challenges from housing affordability to climate change. In February 2018, one month after Mayor

Jacob Frey Jacob Lawrence Frey ( ; born July 23, 1981) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota since 2018. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, he served on the Minneapolis City C ...

was sworn in and seven months into her new role, Knuth resigned, saying that she and Frey did not have the same vision for Minneapolis. She had been conducting interviews and surveys and passed her research off to her successor.

2021 Minneapolis mayoral campaign

On March 2, 2021, Knuth announced her campaign for

in the city's 2021 election as a member of the

. She said she decided to run because of what she called Frey's lack of leadership and the absence of other candidates who could assemble a broad coalition to help move the city forward. She received 38% of the vote and Frey was reelected.

Electoral history

Personal life

Knuth and her husband, Sam, have one daughter. They reside in Minneapolis's Bryn Mawr neighborhood. Knuth's father,

, served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1983 to 1989. Her uncle

Gordon Backlund Gordon Backlund (born November 11, 1940) is an American politician and former engineer who served as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1985 to 1986. Early life and education Backlund was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He ...

served in the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1985 and 1986.

References

External links

Kate Knuth's Campaign Website

Kate Knuth
on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Kate Knuth
on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knuth, Kate 1981 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Candidates in the 2021 United States elections Living people Democratic Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives University of Chicago alumni University of Oslo alumni Women state legislators in Minnesota