The Overlooked Career of Tina Smith

Analyzing the truly underrated record of the North Star State's junior senator

As much as it pains me to admit this, when it comes to forgettable states in the United States, Minnesota is a pretty easy one to point to. We aren’t the absolute lowest of the low in that regard (thank you Nebraska), but I would be lying to all of you if I said that the state of Minnesota wasn’t seen as flyover country by most of the nation. While we aren’t immune to being the top story in the occasional national news article or segment, it usually never goes beyond that.

Thanks to this, practically all of our politicians get overlooked too. To Minnesotans, Amy Klobuchar is an extremely effective U.S. Senator who has managed to win big every time she’s been on the ballot. Tim Walz is the governor who has overseen and signed onto a massive left-liberal project in Minnesota. Melissa Hortman is the State House Speaker who has used her position to push through progressive policy and get support for it from her entire caucus. But to most people outside of the state, these names mean nothing. If they even know them at all, they probably only know the roles that they serve. At most, they know a few unflattering stories that have received national attention and nothing more. When you represent a state as forgettable as Minnesota, this tends to be the consequence of it.

However, even among a list of forgettable politicians, there is one that stands out even among those. A politician who hasn’t managed to break through even among a class of people who most Americans never think about. That politician is Tina Smith, the current junior U.S. Senator from Minnesota.

Even if you are a political junkie, you probably haven’t heard anything about her. Despite being in the U.S. Senate for over half a decade, she has not received a whole lot of real coverage or interest. I don’t blame people for this, because when analyzing her biggest highlights in national politics, they always tend to be overshadowed by someone else. Her role as U.S. Senator from Minnesota is overshadowed by her more popular senior colleague Amy Klobuchar. Her role as a statewide officeholder in Minnesota broadly is also overshadowed by Tim Walz and Keith Ellison. Even her own 2018 swearing-in was overshadowed by Doug Jones, the Democrat who managed to win a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama just a few weeks prior. In most aspects of her career, there’s always someone else taking more of the spotlight, with Tina Smith always sitting quietly on the sidelines of the show people are watching.

This is deeply unfortunate because when you take a look at her career and positions, she is significantly more than just another Democratic Senate caucus member. While her career isn’t perfect, she stands out as one of the best in the Democratic Senate caucus right now. While she doesn’t have the same electoral prowess as many of her co-partisans, she makes up for it by being a consistent ally for important progressive causes while also maintaining a degree of influence within her party. Alongside others like Tammy Baldwin and Sherrod Brown, she holds an important spot within the party as someone who has made real strides to take the progressive wing seriously. In doing so, much like other great politicians in Minnesota’s past, she has helped move the Democratic Party closer to a position of a forward-looking, progressive party that isn’t afraid to make real, transformative change in this country.

While some people have begun to take notice of her strong record in recent months in light of some very funny tweets she has made, it still isn’t anywhere near where I think it should be. A record that she has should earn her a lot more interest and stardom, but as of now, it’s just not there yet.

That’s where this piece comes in. While I am under no illusions about my small level of political influence, I would still like to use that minimal amount to spread the word about a politician who deserves quite a lot more attention from us on the left. In achieving that goal, I will go over her statewide political career thus far, from her work as Lieutenant Governor to her ongoing tenure as a U.S. Senator. By the end, you should hopefully come away with the same conclusion I was able to arrive at: she is truly underrated. With that all being said, let’s start at the beginning.

The Creation of the Velvet Hammer

Before we get to the launch point of Tina Smith’s statewide political career, we first need to set the stage for how she was allowed to rise to the role of Lieutenant Governor in the first place.

First moving to Minneapolis in 1984, the long-time Democrat quickly developed an interest in political activism and campaign work. Throughout the 1990s, she would quickly find herself rising in the ranks of DFL political consultants, with her working on virtually any campaign she could during this period. Eventually, all of this work landed her a favorable connection to one of the most famous DFL political dynasties: the Mondale family. This valuable alliance got her a spot as the campaign manager of both Ted Mondale’s 1998 gubernatorial campaign and Walter Mondale’s sudden 2002 Senate campaign.

While neither of these efforts would prove to be successful, it did give Tina Smith a considerable amount of goodwill within the DFL, ultimately landing her a spot as the Vice President of the Minnesota Planned Parenthood branch. Her campaign work would prove to benefit her significantly in this role, successfully managing to develop real experience in regard to messaging and rhetoric, a very strong asset to have for any political figure.

This was observed by the then-Mayor of Minneapolis R.T. Rybak, who would appoint her as his new Chief of Staff in 2006, bringing her a government job for the first time in her career. This is where her nickname, “the Velvet Hammer” would be born. A name given to her by the mayor himself, it represented her ability to negotiate clear solutions in the face of a significant divide, while also seemingly not causing any rancor. While she was certainly a notable force in the party before, this is where her strength behind the scenes would be truly established. After this, she would go on to manage one more campaign, the 2010 gubernatorial campaign of Rybak himself. While his effort would go on to fail, her work as Rybak’s Chief of Staff was simply too good for many in the DFL to ignore.

One of these people was former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton, the nominee for governor who had just managed to defeat his primary opponent by a slim margin and was now thrown into an extremely tough general election race. In this kind of setting, Dayton was looking for any help he could get, and Tina Smith very quickly emerged as someone who would be a strong asset to him. After the two hit off extremely well in a meeting together, Dayton would add Smith to his campaign team, making her one of the highest-ranking members of it in the process. This proved to be excellent timing for Smith, as, despite the massive red wave that was sweeping the country in 2010, Dayton would manage to flip the governorship from red to blue, making it one of the very few gains Democrats made anywhere in the country that year.

Thanks to her work, Dayton would immediately appoint her as his new Chief of Staff upon taking office. Just like her prior stint as Rybak’s Chief of Staff, her time as Dayton’s Chief of Staff would be a remarkable success, allowing her to surpass practically everyone in Dayton’s inner circle of influence. Whenever a quarrel had to be settled, Smith was often the first person Dayton would delegate the responsibility to. Whether it be disputes with corporations or members of the legislature, Smith was almost always in the center of it, being able to solve whatever problem was occurring with relative ease. Simply put, she was an incredible asset to Dayton, and in return for her work, he would offer her a promotion, asking her to become his Lieutenant Governor ahead of his 2014 re-election campaign.

While this upgrade was initially seen as weak, even by Smith herself, she would manage to turn this mediocre promotion into a massive boost to her political career. She would fundamentally reshape the role of the office she was taking up, and in the process, turn the job into a political spring to jump into a career of her own. But how exactly did that happen?

Mondale-Smith Thought

First, it’s important to establish this fact: prior to Smith taking office, the job of Lieutenant Governor was a pretty lame one. While the role could be useful in establishing a strong political image heading into a tough election, the actual role it played in the everyday function of governing was minimal at best. Those who were picked for this job usually represented a part of the state that the main candidate had difficulty appealing to, meaning that it was almost always someone who already held elected office. Whether it be important governors like Orville Freeman or Rudy Perpich, or unimportant ones like C. Elmer Anderson or Al Quie, the lieutenant governor’s role was almost always the same, boring, politically motivated position.

For his first term, Dayton had kept up with this long-standing tradition. In an effort to appeal to parts of Minnesota outside of his home in Minneapolis, he would select State Senator Yvonne Prettner Solon to be his running mate. She had represented the traditionally Democratic Iron Range, a part of the state that would be key to any Democratic primary victory. This political play would be very successful, with the Dayton-Solon ticket going on to win both the primary and general elections. But at the end of the day, that was all Solon was really good for, as throughout Dayton’s first term, the two hardly ever even had a relationship at all. Her role was extremely low profile, even when compared to other low-profile Minnesota Lieutenant Governors. While most in this role were fine with this, Solon would find it disappointing, eventually resulting in her announcing that she would step down as Lieutenant Governor after the 2014 elections.

This left Dayton with a new question heading into his 2014 campaign, who would be his new lieutenant governor? If he wanted to, he could have continued on with the tradition of picking a politically safe option, something he’d be justified in doing as a Democrat running in an Obama-era midterm. But as Tina Smith proved to be an incredibly valuable member of his team, he would instead buck orthodoxy, deciding to offer her the spot as his running mate.

On top of seeing it as a weak promotion, it also deeply confused Tina Smith. After all, a key factor when picking a lieutenant governor is having someone with a clear record of electoral success. Why would he want someone who had no electoral history? At first, it seemed like a considerable risk, and one that she was initially hesitant to accept.

But as she thought more about it, the more she was able to connect the dots. While picking her could have proven to be somewhat risky, the chance of it being fatal, even if it did go poorly, was far lower than four years prior. Compared to his near-fatal 2010 standing, Dayton was in a far stronger position to win his election in 2014. He was the incumbent, had consistently positive approval ratings, and was not on track to face any particularly threatening Republican challengers. While her being picked could have prevented Dayton from gaining a point or two, the sacrifice was ultimately worth it if it meant that she got to stay in the Dayton administration, this time with the benefit of having a far more public image.

But she still wasn’t quite on board yet. After all, it was only the Lieutenant Governorship, an underwhelming figurehead role that did little to inspire any real confidence. While it could give her a public image to an extent she had never had before, it could come at the expense of her work behind the scenes. This was brand new territory for her, and in trying to seek advice on how to move forward, she would look to her long-time political mentor Walter Mondale on what to do.

For those who are not aware, Walter Mondale was the man who shaped the office of the Vice Presidency into the way we think about and look at it today. Just like the role of Minnesota Lieutenant Governor, the role of the Vice Presidency pre-Mondale was little more than a political figurehead, serving as little more than a campaign political calculation. But when the Carter-Mondale ticket won in 1976, Mondale sought to change this, making it very clear to the president-elect that he wanted to serve as a top advisor and be in the know about whatever was happening. While past Vice Presidents were sometimes entirely disconnected from what their boss was doing, Carter and Mondale would have a full relationship, keeping up a near 24/7 level of contact with each other. While this departure from the norm was massive, it would catch on, serving as the model for the Vice Presidency to this very day.

The former Vice President, well aware of Smith’s negotiating skills, sought to bring her on board with this line of thinking. Using his own experience as Vice President as an example, he would argue that in order for her to be both a good politician and legislator, she needed to make clear to Dayton that she wanted to be in a clear position of influence within the administration. This was a line of reasoning that Smith would quickly jump on board with. Not only did it give her the full confidence she needed to accept the job, but in accepting Mondale’s line of reasoning, she would also be in a position to reshape the Lieutenant Governorship in a way no other person had done before.

For the first time, she would be on the ballot as a politician. Fortunately for her, this election wasn’t shaping up to be that difficult of a fight. While the first Dayton campaign was an ultra-competitive horserace, the second campaign was far more pre-determined, with Dayton leading in every poll throughout the campaign, often by double digits. While his final margin wasn’t quite that large, he was still ultimately re-elected by a very solid 5.6-point margin, even as Democratic efforts throughout the rest of the country were going down in flames in the face of yet another red wave. Thanks to this victory, Tina Smith was now the official statewide number two, and for the first time, she was holding a clearly visible public role in the state of Minnesota.

Mark Dayton and Tina Smith celebrating their victory, 2014

As Lieutenant Governor, she would continue her work, now with the benefit of having cameras and reporters to watch her wherever she goes. Her once invisible Velvet Hammer was now on full display, and people were finally taking notice of her strengths as a legislative worker and negotiator. In contrast with her low-profile predecessor, Smith would appear practically everywhere with the governor, even appearing right alongside him in negotiations with the Republican State Legislature, something that almost never occurred prior.

Not only did this succeed in building her own profile, but it also helped make it a popular one. Dayton had always been a popular governor, it’s why he managed to win in 2014 despite a red wave hitting the country. But his second term would see his popularity peak, hitting a high of 62% in the spring of 2017. Smith, who had aligned herself closely with him in her capacity as Lieutenant Governor, would see much of this popularity trickle down to her as well. This newfound strength led some to call for her to run for Governor in 2018, as Dayton had announced prior to this that he was planning on retiring. If she wanted to take it, she likely could have emerged out of it as a clear frontrunner to take the job, as not only would she have a strong shot of winning the primary, but the general election too.

However, much to the shock of many in the press and the party, she announced that she was not going to be running. This meant that once Dayton’s term was over, unless someone else was going to pick her for Lieutenant Governor, this would have been the end of her political career. It would have been a pretty disappointing end, as it was pretty clear that she was quickly becoming a rising star within the DFL. Was she just waiting for when the time was right to make a run for statewide office in her own right? Or was she really just done with the government, satisfied with her achievements?

It wouldn’t actually take that long to figure out the answer to this question. While some thought it may take years to figure this out, it would actually only take a few months. The once seemingly dead-political career of Tina Smith would see its engine kicked right back into operation. But it wasn’t because Dayton decided to retire early, as some had anticipated in light of his recent health woes. It was for something practically no one had anticipated.

How The Velvet Hammer Took the Wellstone Mantle

After the presidential election of Donald Trump in the 2016 election, there were an endless amount of candidates floated as potential options to go up against him in the 2020 election. The bench was absolutely massive, filled with names from all different sections and wings of the party. There were moderate figures listed like Joe Biden and Tim Kaine. There were progressive figures listed like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. There were even some potential rising stars listed, like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. When looking at any 2020 election speculation article, there was always a massive variety of candidates listed, each appealing to their own lanes in one way or another.

However, there were occasionally some very interesting ones thrown in there too. One that may not have necessarily associated with any particular camp, but still had a very clear appeal that could have stood as something fascinating in a race against someone as bombastic as Donald Trump. And of all of these choices, Minnesota U.S. Senator Al Franken was the one who stood out the most.

First elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008 by a shockingly small margin of 312 votes, Al Franken had established a unique political brand for himself unlike anything seen elsewhere in the country. A comedian and progressive, he stood out as among the most charismatic Senators in the entire country, giving him a clear fanbase within the party. He would also prove to be a solid legislator in his own right, giving him positive marks from those in the more moderate camp of voters who could have been turned off by his partisan comedy. This made him a very formidable electoral force, as was proven in his 2014 re-election, where he would defeat his Republican opponent by over double digits. While a red wave was occurring throughout the rest of the country, Al Franken would be untouched, outperforming the partisan baseline by 12 points, an incredibly solid overperformance. That kind of electoral record and personality, especially in the face of someone like Trump, made Franken a real consideration by many, and it’s very possible that he could have been an incredibly strong candidate in 2020.

However, this status within the Democratic Party would soon come to an abrupt end. In late 2017, amid the rise of the #MeToo movement, allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Franken. What was once just one woman coming out soon turned into several others coming out too, all describing their own experiences with inappropriate behavior by Franken. Upon this revelation being dropped, several Democratic Senators had called on him to resign. This eventually reached Democratic U.S. Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, who would be the one to get Franken to resign his seat under threat of committee assignments being removed. Suddenly, there was going to be an open Senate seat.

This suddenly left the retiring Governor Dayton with a new task on his hands: who to pick as the replacement. Those on the more progressive wing of the party rallied for Keith Ellison, the then Minneapolis-based U.S. Congressman who had long been an ally of their causes ever since he became a politician. Those on the more moderate wing generally got behind Tim Walz, the then U.S. Congressman based out of Southern Minnesota, a part of the state that was trending rightward after Trump won the district in 2016.

To Dayton however, the choice was obvious from the start. Likely not wanting to see her political career go to waste, he had decided incredibly early on that he was going to appoint Tina Smith to this position. While this likely wasn’t the pick that everyone necessarily begged for, it was clearly the most obvious choice for the job. She had just spent the last few years proving that she could be an incredibly effective negotiator and legislator. It only made sense that he would send her to the political body that deals with that exact kind of policymaking.

While Tina Smith wasn’t really looking all that hard for a role in national politics, she would happily take it on when presented with the opportunity. After all, what exactly was the harm? She had the ability to work on behalf of the entire state, something that as a former organizer, is impossible to pass up. It helped even more that the Senate seat she was taking was once held by Paul Wellstone, someone else who rose through the ranks of the DFL through his progressive organizing and negotiating skills. It was a good fit, and at the start of 2018, she would officially be sworn into office as the next U.S. Senator from Minnesota.

Tina Smith being sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence, 2018

The Back-to-Back Tina Smith Campaign Operation

Upon being sworn into the U.S. Senate, you would think that this would be the time for Tina Smith to truly establish herself within the ranks of the chamber. In theory, this would be the time when she builds an understanding of how policy-making gets done in Washington and establishes connections with other U.S. Senators. But thanks to the nature of how she got her new role, she wouldn’t really have an opportunity to do this for a while.

While she did still manage to find time to learn the basics of her role, her first three years as a U.S. Senator would be spent having to deal with running campaigns and all the time-consuming activities that come with that. She just didn’t have the ability to distinguish herself during this time, something that did serious damage to her visibility during her first few years as a U.S. Senator. In essence, she just served as another party-line vote, and with the White House being controlled by Donald Trump, any real opportunity she may have had to influence policy in her own way on the national level just didn’t exist yet.

But in regards to running campaigns, the one thing she was able to do in full capacity, she would end up doing a pretty good job. Her first election came just ten months after she was officially sworn in, the special election to fill the rest of Franken’s term. While just the blue wave alone would have probably been more than enough to carry her in retrospect, in light of strong Republican results in the state in 2016, Smith would not take this race for granted. Using her past skills as a progressive organizer, she would significantly outraise her Republican opponent, taking full advantage of the grassroots edge that Democrats had going into 2018. This proved to be the decisive factor in the election, which saw Tina Smith ride the blue wave with ease, defeating her Republican opponent Karin Housley by around 10 and a half points. For her first-ever statewide campaign, this was a pretty solid start.

While she would have a few months to cool off from the campaign season, she would quickly have to re-enter the arena, this time running to win a full term of her own in 2020. This election would prove to be much more of a test of her campaign strength. While her victory in 2018 was solid, it also occurred in the context of her party seeing massive success throughout the rest of the country. While she never went below the blue wave, she didn’t rise above it either. And with Trump developing an obsession with the state after his near-upset victory in the state four years prior, that meant that this Senate contest was going to be hotly contested.

Just like in 2018, Smith would use her experience as an organizer to full effect, once again taking full advantage of the edge that Democrats had in grassroots fundraising. This time, however, Republicans would also develop their own war chest, with Trump and the Republicans making a significantly larger effort in the state than they ever did in 2018. On top of this, Republicans had made a real effort to push the two pro-marijuana legalization third parties, a vote-splitting tactic that would primarily come at the expense of Smith. While she was certainly still the favorite, this election was shaping up to be a decent amount closer than her relatively easy 2018 win.

When all was said and done, the result would be somewhat difficult to interpret. At face value, it was a somewhat disappointing result for Smith. While Biden would carry Minnesota by a 7.1-point margin, Smith would win re-election to her seat by a margin of 5.2 points, underperforming the top of the ticket by just under two points. While this certainly wasn’t a catastrophic showing by any means, it would represent an underwhelming result, one that doesn’t exactly present something of a unique political brand.

When you look a bit deeper though, analyzing her performance becomes a bit more difficult to do. As evidenced by the final result, the Republican effort to push vote-splitting third parties proved to be somewhat successful, with the two parties combined earning 7.7% of the vote. While it didn’t result in them winning the race, it did likely take a significant chunk out of Smith’s final total, suggesting that perhaps if the parties didn’t exist, she could have done quite a bit better in regards to the final margin. While one could see this as proof that she is quite a bit stronger than her margin shows, one could also see it as a failure to convince third-party voters to come to your side, a sign of political weakness that partially explains her slight underperformance in the final margin.

Regardless of how you view her strength as a candidate on the ballot, however, one thing was clear: she was finally out of campaign hell. For at least four more years, she would be able to establish her role in the U.S. Senate without having to worry about the looming campaign that was just months away. At least for now, she was finally free. Even better, a Democrat would finally be in the White House, meaning that she could have finally had real influence on the policies of the country.

This newfound influence is where, for the first time, Tina Smith would truly stand out among the pack.

“Tina, I didn’t know you talked like that”

Prior to the Biden administration, Tina Smith was not in a position to flex her more progressive positions nationally. As she was always stuck in campaign mode, she would play up an image of herself as a bipartisan, consensus-focused moderate who was willing to work with both parties to get things done. For the DFL, this was absolutely nothing new, this has been their campaign playbook for decades now. But in the case of Smith, it did have the unfortunate side effect of seeing her more progressive positions sidelined. But with her no longer in campaign mode, she could finally be in a position to act in a progressive manner, mixed with a bit of pragmatism and occasional profanity. This period of her career is where she truly began to shine bright, even if not many others noticed it.

After the Democratic trifecta was sworn in, Smith immediately got to work on the issue of climate change, something that had been a focal point of both her 2018 and 2020 campaigns. She knew full well that it was not only important from a policy perspective but also in keeping progressives invested in any capacity with the party. However, she also knew that this was certainly not going to be an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination. While the Democrats did control a trifecta, that trifecta ran through the support of West Virginia U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a man who represented a deeply Republican state that was heavily reliant on coal and other fossil fuels. Getting practically anything done on this issue was going to have to require him jumping on board. Not exactly the most ideal situation, to say the least.

Tina Smith speaking at a “No Climate, No Deal” rally, 2021.

Despite this, Smith would remain undeterred, making a very important point that if Democrats were going to hold power, they needed to actually do something with it if they wanted to win voters going forward. She would remain committed to the project throughout the entire trifecta, frequently keeping in contact with climate activists and advocacy groups. While she wasn’t jumping at the opportunity to grab the mic, she wasn’t afraid to be brash when things looked to be going south.

The most notable example of this was in July of 2022 when it appeared that Manchin was not going to be supporting any form of climate change combating measures in the Inflation Reduction Act, the signature reconciliation bill of Biden’s presidency. She immediately hit back, simply tweeting out “This is bullshit” in response to the news, and alongside fellow Democratic U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, declared that if there were no climate provisions in this bill, there was no deal.

While this initially seemed like a risky play, Smith and Heinrich would later prove their worth in doing this. While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer played the role of the behind-the-scenes negotiator, the actions of the two senators would serve the purpose of holding Schumer and Manchin’s feet to the fire, making sure that the bill was still a meaningful step forward in regard to climate change. It’s worth noting that part of the reason this strategy ended up working out is that both of them were in the right position to pull this off. While they were both unapologetic in their support of this movement, they had also established connections within the U.S. Senate among their colleagues, with Manchin being among them. While the attitude was harsh, they had enough predetermined goodwill that it made Manchin feel real pressure to act on something he was otherwise uninterested in doing, something he made clear when he told her, “Tina, I didn’t know you talked like that”.

Once again, Smith had held her reputation as a Velvet Hammer: standing her ground in a firm way while not causing any bad blood with her fellow co-workers. Thanks to that, the Inflation Reduction Act would be among the most transformative pieces of legislation in regard to climate change in U.S. history. While it didn’t go far enough, the fact that anything was even able to get done with a 50-50 U.S. Senate that ran through a blue dog coal baron at all was a remarkable success story. This is the biggest achievement thus far during Smith’s U.S. Senate career, and the political skill she showed off during the fight makes her one of the most promising rising progressive members alone.

However, beyond just the issue of climate change, Smith has shown herself to be an unapologetic ally of other progressive causes too. In comparison with her far more cautious senior colleague Amy Klobuchar, Smith has been far more outspoken.

Going back to her roots as a Planned Parenthood leadership figure, she has been a passionate advocate of abortion rights far before the Dobbs decision ever came out. Months before the ruling ever came to pass, she was already declaring her support for eliminating the filibuster to protect Roe v. Wade, and even jumping on board with the idea of packing the U.S. Supreme Court, something most other Democratic U.S. Senators were highly reluctant to back. When the Dobbs decision did officially take effect in the summer of 2022, Smith would become a leader on the pro-choice side, both making it a clear campaign issue heading into the 2022 midterms and being on the forefront of the fight on the U.S. Senate floor as well. More so than many other politicians in the country, she understood the Dobbs effect and sought to make sure the DFL took full advantage of it in her state’s elections that year. And in case that wasn’t enough, the profanity would come back into play. Twice!

Look pretty much anywhere you want, and you’ll see Smith playing the progressive side of the debate confidently. Whether it be LGBTQ+ rights, fights over the debt ceiling last May, child care, single-payer healthcare, or even issues like the pardoning of Leonard Peltier, it’s hard to find an issue where she’s not truly solid. She would even come to the defense of John Fetterman in light of him revealing his struggle with depression, describing her own personal story with the issue and how it affected her, making her one of the rare politicians open about their experiences with mental health issues. When it comes to policy and rhetoric, there aren’t a lot of better members in the U.S. Senate you could really ask for.

You may think all of this would result in her having bad relations with those on the opposite of the aisle, but thanks to her political talent, she has managed to keep up pretty solid relations with the other side too. While she can’t appeal to everyone, she has openly positive of her colleagues on the other side of the table, including many in her home state’s delegation. One of these guys is Brad Finstad, the Republican U.S. Congressman representing Southern Minnesota. Together, Smith and Finstad have teamed up in recent weeks to address the local issues of farmers, introducing a bill that deals with many of the growing concerns in the local industry in the last few years. While her local politics is not quite as strong as the statewide icon that is Amy Klobuchar, it still represents an ability to be both solid on national progressive concerns while also serving the needs of local constituents at the same time.

All in all, when analyzing her U.S. Senate tenure, there’s very little to be critical of so far. When playing as a fierce advocate is the best move, she has done it with ease. When playing as a pragmatic negotiator is the best move, she has pulled it off with no issue. While she may not be the first one to take the spotlight in front of national reporters, she’s not afraid to fight when the time is needed. She is a highly skilled politician and one that Minnesota is very lucky to have.

Final Thoughts

As we have gone over her record, we have seen that Tina Smith has demonstrated an ability to not only be one of the best progressive advocates in the entire U.S. Senate but also be one of the best when it comes to the basics of politics.

Ever since she began her career in government, she has been an indispensable asset to any team that adds her, whether it be R.T. Rybak, Mark Dayton, or Planned Parenthood. Thankfully, at least when it comes to power within the party, this is something that has been observed by Senate Democrats. Ahead of 2024, the DSCC, the organization responsible for electing Democratic U.S. Senate candidates, has given Tina Smith the position of Vice Chair, as well as Chair of the DSCC’s Woman Senate Network, the part of the organization responsible for seeing Democratic women elected. While Democratic chances of holding the U.S. Senate in 2024 are very narrow thanks to a highly unfavorable map, I have a lot of faith that Tina Smith will do a good job in her new role, and I’m glad to see the Democratic caucus give her more responsibility for her efforts.

As I said at the beginning of this piece, however, she still remains largely unseen by much of the party and public. While some of her advocacy has caught the interest of the occasional article in recent months, there really isn’t a lot more than that. Now that you have read this piece in full, hopefully, you came to the same conclusion that I did: she’s a hidden gem of a politician. Just like Paul Wellstone decades before her, she has managed to maintain a status as a fantastic progressive organizer, a skilled legislator, and a tough but good-faith negotiator. While she may not be as willing to become a superstar within the party, she will happily take on a fight, no matter how tough it may seem, both transforming nationwide and statewide politics in the process.

In recent months, many have begun to look more into Minnesota in light of sweeping policy changes hitting the state after the DFL unexpectedly won a state trifecta in the 2022 midterms. It’s truly something to behold, and in light of other states going backward in time on major cultural issues, Minnesota is proving to be a sign of real hope. You certainly cannot credit one person alone for all of this, this has been the project in waiting for the DFL for years now.

But as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison points out, if there is one person who should get more credit than they currently do for all of this, it’s Tina Smith. These changes did not come by accident: they were the product of years of political activism and advocacy in demand for real, transformative legislation. And during this time, Tina Smith was one of the ones who laid down the foundation for what we saw in 2023. Using her connections to government and activists, she would help craft legislation and bills designed to pass the moment the DFL took power again, guaranteeing that no matter what happened, the next session would be game-changing.

While it takes a few years for them to get that kind of power again, it would prove to live up to the hype. A paid family and sick leave program was established. Minnesota became a refuge for trans people. Non-compete agreements were banned. Abortion rights were enshrined in the state constitution. Marijuana was legalized. School lunches were made free of cost for all public schools. The state made a commitment to carbon-free electricity production by 2040. Conversion therapy was outlawed. Red flag laws were established. Tax rebates up to $1,000 were provided to the middle class.

Quite frankly, I could really go on forever, but I think you get the point. It was absolutely massive, and the DFL deserves all of the praise it has gotten for this. But one thing is also clear: this is the product of Tina Smith’s life work. While some may be convinced to write her off as yet another pandering politician, this recent legislative session has proven that she is willing to do whatever it takes to make real progress. Far from being just another Democratic politician, her appeal and message are real, and I hope the left will begin to take a more serious look at her. She is an undeniable asset, and while she likely won’t take any run for higher office any time soon, she could serve as a truly powerful figure for progressive causes going forward.

She is “The Velvet Hammer”, after all.