Kaozouapa Elizabeth “Liz” Lee is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2023. She is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) and represents District 67A in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, including parts of Saint Paul in Ramsey County.1
Early Life, Career, and Education: Lee was born to Hmong refugees who emigrated to the United States from a Thai refugee camp after being displaced from Laos. She was raised in public housing on the east side of Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she delivered papers for the Eastside Review. In high school, she worked as a House aide to state representative Tim Mahoney. Lee earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Yale University.
Career: Lee worked as a staffer for U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, and U.S. Representative Keith Ellison. She worked as a nonprofit consultant before being elected to the state legislature.
Minnesota House of Representatives: Lee was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2022. She defeated one-term incumbent John Thompson, who was expelled from the DFL House caucus in 2021 amid domestic abuse allegations, in the DFL primary. Lee serves as vice chair of the Property Tax Division of the Taxes Committee and as an assistant majority leader for the House DFL caucus. She also sits on the Children and Families Finance and Policy, Education Policy, and Taxes Committees. Lee is a member of the House People of Color and Indigenous (POCI) Caucus and the Minnesota Asian and Pacific (MAP) Caucus.
Political Positions: Lee ran on a platform of rent stabilization, good-paying jobs, infrastructure, and health equity. She joined a group of Minnesota legislators in urging the U.S. Census Bureau to reclassify several Asian ethnicities, including Hmong, saying the bureau “didn’t do proper stakeholder engagement” with the Asian community. At a press conference on anti-Asian hate crimes, Lee said she and the MAP Caucus would push for further gun regulations.
Electoral History: In the 2022 DFL Primary for Minnesota State House - District 67A, Liz Lee received 2,168 votes, accounting for 88.93% of the total votes. In the 2022 Minnesota State House - District 67A election, Liz Lee received 6,320 votes, accounting for 75.13% of the total votes.
Personal Life: Liz Lee resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is a proud Hmong daughter of St. Paul’s Eastside. Her story begins even before she was born, in the refugee camps of Thailand where her parents met because their families were displaced by the civil war in Laos, which was part of the Vietnam War.
