Joe Radinovich has been a state legislator, campaign manager, labor advocate. He is running for an open seat in the US Congress in a district that ranges from the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities to the iron range.
On September 11, 2001, Dan Feehan was in Washington, DC. His public service goal became joining the military. He signed up for ROTC, graduated, and served two combat tours in Iraq from 2006 to 2009. Next, he joined Teach for America and got an internship in the White House. The internship brought him back to the military. After some civilian experiences with the military, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readines
Angie Craig has been head of human resources for a large corporation. Her most recent non-political job was head of communications for St. Judes (a familiar name to those who give to medical charities). The divide in the Democratic Party has largely to do with economic issues, how to work with corporations. Angie Craig, like others who share her perspective, is comfortable with large corporations. She lost a close race in 2016 and is trying to unseat the freshman incumbent who defeated her.
Tina Smith has been involved in Minnesota politics for a long time. She came to Minnesota from Arizona to take a marketing job at General Mills. She later worked on her own as a marketing consultant. She also worked for the Planned Parenthood office serving Minnesota and the Dakotas. She worked as chief of staff for mayors and governors, ran political campaigns for governors. Now she is running for the US Senate, seeking to get elected on her own.
Dean Phillips is a candidate of Minneapolis' western suburbs. A wealthy CEO, a frequent Democratic donor, he has almost as frequently declined to run for office. HIs father, Artie Pfeffer, died fighting in Vietnam when Phillips was six months old. His widowed mother married into the wealthy Phillips family. Adopted son of the family, Dean Phillips was educated for business and was a successful CEO. He says the real family business has been philanthropy. He looks like a pretty good politician, too.
Rick Nolan is an unusual man and an unusual politician. In his seventies, his current stint as a Congressman is his third career. His first career was also as a politician and Congressman. A young aide to Walter Mondale, after a brief stint as a teacher, he ran for Congress in 1972, lost in a close race, but won handily in the next three elections. In between his stints as a Congressman, Rick Nolan was a politically connected businessman. He was President of the US Export Corporation, then became head of the Minnesota World Trade Center.