Mary A. Olson (born May 23, 1958) 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 ...

(US) politician and a former 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 ...

who represented District 4, which includes portions of Beltrami,

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, Crow Wing,

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, and Itasca counties in the northern part of the state. A

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, she was first elected in 2006. On November 2, 2010, she lost her re-election bid to the

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 ...

John Carlson. Olson was a member of the Senate's Commerce & Consumer Protection Committee and Judiciary Committee. She also served on the Finance subcommittees for the Economic Development and Housing Budget Division and the Health and Human Services Budget Division, and on the Judiciary Judiciary Subcommittee for Data Practices, which she chaired. Olson received a

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 North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...

and earned a J.D. from their law school. Before her election to the Senate, she was the assistant county attorney for Crow Wing County, and also as an attorney for the

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March Air Force Base March Air Reserve Base (March ARB), previously known as March Air Force Base (March AFB) is located in Riverside County, California between the cities of Riverside, Moreno Valley, and Perris. It is the home to the Air Force Reserve Command's Fo ...

. Her great-great-grandfather, Peter A. Gandrud, was also a member of the

Minnesota Legislature The Minnesota Legislature is the bicameral legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota consisting of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senators are elected from 67 single-member districts. In order to account for decennia ...

. She and her husband, John, have four children.

Electoral history

References

External links

Senator Olson web pageMinnesota Public Radio Votetracker: Senator Mary Olson
1958 births Living people People from Willmar, Minnesota Military personnel from Minnesota American Lutherans Democratic Party Minnesota state senators University of North Dakota alumni Women state legislators in Minnesota 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians {{Minnesota-politician-stub