Mary Kunesh-Podein is a Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party member of the Minnesota Senate, representing District 39. Kunesh-Podein, who also uses the name Mary Kunesh, was first elected to the Senate in 2020 and re-elected in 2022, when redistricting renumbered the seat as District 39. Before joining the Senate, Kunesh-Podein served two terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives for District 41B, winning elections in 2016 and 2018.1
Kunesh-Podein was born in St. Paul in 1960, one of thirteen children, and grew up in Sartell, graduating from Cathedral High School in St. Cloud. Kunesh-Podein is a descendant of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, in which a grandparent and mother were enrolled citizens. The senator earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from St. Catherine University in 1995 and a master’s degree in information media from St. Cloud State University in 2010, and worked as a library media specialist for Robbinsdale Area Schools. A resident of New Brighton, Kunesh-Podein served as a member and chair of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Environmental Commission before running for the Legislature.
While in the House, Kunesh-Podein was chief author of a bill to create a state task force on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, which passed the House unanimously in 2019, and chaired the task force when it presented its report and recommendations to the Legislature in December 2020. In 2023 the Senate DFL caucus elected Kunesh-Podein an assistant majority leader. The senator chairs the Education Finance Committee and serves on the Education Policy committee; the Environment, Climate, and Legacy committee; and the Agriculture, Veterans, Broadband, and Rural Development committee.
