Majority Whip Tom Emmer

Thomas Earl Emmer Jr. is an American attorney and politician serving as House Majority Whip and representing Minnesota's 6th Congressional District, which covers the far western and northern suburbs of Minneapolis, most of the St. Cloud metro area, and a large expanse of rural central Minnesota. Born on March 3, 1961, in South Bend, Indiana, he grew up in Edina, Minnesota, and attended St. Thomas Academy, an all-male Catholic military preparatory school in Mendota Heights. He played college hockey at both Boston College and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, graduating from the latter in 1984 with a BA in political science, then earned a JD from William Mitchell College of Law in 1988. His great-grandfather and two brothers founded Emmer Brothers Lumber in 1910, now operating as Viking Forest Products, an employee-owned subsidiary of Forest City Trading Group. He and his wife Jacqueline have seven children and he is a Roman Catholic.

Emmer served three terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011, representing a district in Wright and Hennepin Counties, winning each election with 60% or better. He served on the Finance Committee, the Health Care and Human Services Committee, and the State and Local Government Operations Committee. In 2010 he ran for governor of Minnesota with endorsements from Sarah Palin, Governor Tim Pawlenty, and the Republican Party of Minnesota, won the primary with 82% of the vote, but narrowly lost the general election to Democrat Mark Dayton by fewer than 9,000 votes, a margin that triggered an automatic recount before Emmer conceded on December 8, 2010. After the loss he briefly lobbied and co-hosted a morning talk radio program before returning to politics.

When Michele Bachmann surprised the political world with her 2013 retirement announcement, Emmer entered the race for her 6th District seat and won the Republican endorsement on the first ballot with 76%, then won the primary 73% and prevailed comfortably in the 2014 general. He was reelected in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 by margins ranging from 22 to 32 points. He chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2019 to 2023, overseeing the Republican effort to retake the House majority in the 2022 elections. After Republicans won a narrower-than-expected majority, he won a contested Majority Whip election 115 to 106 over Jim Banks, becoming the third ranking House Republican and the chief vote-counter and floor manager for House leadership.

In October 2023 Emmer became the Republican conference's third nominee for Speaker of the House after Steve Scalise withdrew and Jim Jordan failed three floor votes, but he dropped out the same day the conference nominated him after former President Trump publicly opposed him, calling him totally out of touch with Republican voters and a globalist RINO. Mike Johnson was subsequently elected Speaker. Emmer is widely considered Congress's most prominent cryptocurrency and digital assets advocate, described by Politico in 2023 as having championed the industry well before most members took it seriously, and raised the second-most cash from the crypto industry of all members in the 2022 cycle. He voted with Trump's stated positions 91.5% of the time in the 116th Congress.

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