Mark’s Biography

En Español: Biografía de mark

markbio

I’m Mark Dayton. I was born in Minneapolis and raised in a house in Long Lake, where my father still lives today. I have two grown sons, Eric (29) and Andrew (26), and I live in Minneapolis with my two German Shepherds (Mesabi & Dakota).

I attended Long Lake Elementary School and Blake School in Hopkins. I loved hockey, and my childhood dream was to be the starting goalie on the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team! I didn’t make it, but I was named an All-State goalie my senior year in high school. I graduated, cum laude, from Yale University, where I also played Division I hockey.

After college, I taught 9th grade general science for two years in a New York City public school. It was the toughest job I’ve ever had! My conscience was seared by the terrible injustice that my students had so little, while I had been given so much; and I decided that I would devote my life to improving social equality and economic opportunity for all Americans.

For most of the past 34 years, I have served Minnesotans, as Commissioner of the Minnesota Departments of Economic Development and of Energy and Economic Development, as State Auditor, and as United States Senator. I have worked throughout our state to help businesses locate or expand and create jobs, to improve local government services, to better fund our public schools, to support our servicemen and women, to help Minnesotans get the health care they need, and in many other ways to make A Better Minnesota.

I have always fought hard for the causes I believed in, whether they were popular at the time or not. I strongly opposed the Vietnam War, for which I was the only Minnesotan named to then-President Nixon’s “Enemies List.” I was one of only 23 Senators to vote against the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, along with Minnesota’s great Senator Paul Wellstone.

I offer Minnesotans strong leadership for tough times. There are no easy answers to the critical problems facing us. I am prepared to do what is unpopular, in order to do what is right – and to do what must be done to restore Minnesota’s prosperity and greatness. To do so, I first need your support.

Let’s build A Better Minnesota!