Linda Higgins

Linda Higgins (born November 11, 1950) is a Minnesota politician who represented the second district of Hennepin County as county commissioner from late 2012 to January 2019. Higgins is a former member of the Minnesota Senate representing District 58, which included portions of the city of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, which is in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. A Democrat, she was first elected to the Senate in 1996, and was re-elected in 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2010. She served as a majority whip from 2001 to 2006. In the fall of 2011, she announced that she would not seek reelection after the current term ended in 2012. However, when Hennepin County District 2 commissioner Mark Stenglein announced in June 2012 that he would resign, Higgins decided to run for that position. On May 20, 2012, she was endorsed by the DFL party for the position, and won the election in November. In 2014, she ran unopposed and was reelected. She served as the vice-chair of the county board, and chair of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. She retired from the county board in January 2019.

Higgins was a member of the Senate's Capital Investment, Environment and Natural Resources, and Health and Human Services committees. She chaired the Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee from 2003 to 2007. She also chaired the Public Safety Budget Division from 2008 to 2010. Her special legislative concerns included housing, early childhood issues, health, communities of color, and the environment. She attended Titonka High School in Titonka, Iowa, then went on to Iowa Lakes Community College, where she received her A.A. degree, and to Mankato State College in Mankato, where she received her BS degree in Teaching.