Michelle Fischbach made history as the first woman to serve as Minnesota's Lieutenant Governor, a role she unexpectedly assumed in 2018 when the previous lieutenant governor resigned, leading her to also briefly serve as acting governor. A former state senator with a background in banking and finance, she has established herself as a fiscal conservative focused on agricultural issues, small business support, and reducing federal regulations. Her political rise reflects the increasingly Republican lean of rural Minnesota, as she successfully flipped a district that had been held by Democrats for decades when she defeated long-serving incumbent Collin Peterson in 2020.