Farm and district
Steven A. Sviggum was born September 15, 1951, of Norwegian-American stock, graduated from St. Olaf College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, taught school, and farmed near Kenyon. He was elected to the Minnesota House in 1978 from the district that took in Kenyon and its townships, renumbered 25A, 26A and finally 28B over the years, and was re-elected fourteen times.
Minority leader, then Speaker
He led the House Republican minority from April 1992 until the 1998 election gave his party the majority, and was elected the 56th Speaker of the House on January 5, 1999, serving until January 3, 2007. His speakership coincided with Governor Jesse Ventura's Reform Party term and a Democratic Senate, then with Governor Tim Pawlenty; he presided over the 2003 budget fight and the 2005 partial government shutdown before Democrats retook the House in 2006.
After the House
Governor Pawlenty appointed him Commissioner of Labor and Industry on July 17, 2007, and then Commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget in December 2010. He was elected to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents in February 2011, resigned a year later over a conflict with his communications job for the Senate Republican caucus, and was elected again for a 2017–2023 term, during which his 2022 remark asking whether the Morris campus had become "too diverse" drew statewide criticism and his resignation as vice chair. He and his wife Debra have three children.