Patrick "Pat" Garofalo (born September 23, 1971) is an American politician and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the

Republican Party of Minnesota The Republican Party of Minnesota is the oldest active political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The Minnesota Republican Party’s platform is relatively moderate. The party’s main issues are economic growth, education, healthcare, civ ...

, he represents District 58B, which includes portions of Dakota and Goodhue counties in the southeastern

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

metropolitan area.

Education

Born in 1971 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Garofalo graduated from

Rosemount High School Rosemount High School is a public four-year high school in Rosemount, Minnesota, United States, founded in 1918. The school is one of four four-year high schools in Independent School District 196 (Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District). T ...

in Rosemount in 1989, then went on to

Minnesota State University, Mankato Minnesota State University, Mankato (MNSU, MSU, or Minnesota State) is a public university in Mankato, Minnesota, United States. It is Minnesota's second-largest university and has over 123,000 living alumni worldwide. Founded in 1868, it is t ...

Mankato Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the state of Minnesota. The population was 44,488 according to the 2020 census, making it the 21st-largest city in Minnesota, and the 5th-largest outside of the Minnea ...

, earning his B.S. in

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term ...

in 1994.

Minnesota House of Representatives

Garofalo was first elected in 2004 and has been reelected every two years since. In February 2008, he was named assistant minority whip for the Republican caucus. Garofalo served one term as chair of the Education Finance Committee in 2011–12, and chaired the Job Growth & Energy Affordability Committee from 2015 to 2018. He is now the minority lead of the Ways and Means Committee. In March 2015, Garofalo posted 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 ...

that if a majority of

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

teams were to fold, "nobody would notice a difference ith thepossible exception of increase in streetcrime." He said he was making an observation about crime among professional athletes, not a racist comment. He later apologized. In 2015, after U.S. Representative John Kline announced he was not running for reelection, attention turned to Garofalo as a possible contender for the seat. After a recruiting visit to Washington, D.C. with House leadership, Garofalo told local media, "I would rather stick a fork in my eye than run for Congress". In 2021, Garofalo called the U.S. Capitol attack by

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

supporters "ridiculous" and " banana republic shit".

Personal life

Garofalo and his family live in Farmington. He is a network engineer who works on computer infrastructure and

IP telephony Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

systems. He was the technology coordinator for

Tim Pawlenty Timothy James Pawlenty (; born November 27, 1960) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 39th governor of Minnesota from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party, Pawlenty served in the Minnesota House o ...

's 2002 gubernatorial campaign.

Electoral history

References

External links

Rep. Pat Garofalo
– official Minnesota House of Representatives website
Minnesota Public Radio Votetracker: Rep. Pat Garofalo

Project Votesmart – Rep. Pat Garofalo Profile

Rep. Pat Garofalo
''official campaign website'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Garofalo, Pat 1971 births Living people Minnesota State University, Mankato alumni People from Farmington, Minnesota Republican Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives 21st-century American politicians Politicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota