Sean Nienow

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Sean Nienow
Image of Sean Nienow
Prior offices
Minnesota House of Representatives

Minnesota State Senate District 32

Education

Bachelor's

Northwestern College

Personal
Profession
Independent Consultant
Contact

Sean R. Nienow (b. March 9, 1968) is a former Republican member of the Minnesota State Senate, representing District 32 from 2011 to 2017.

Nienow previously served in the Senate from 2003 to 2007.

Biography

Nienow's professional experience includes working as a consultant and adviser.

Committee assignments

2015 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Nienow served on the following committees:

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Nienow served on the following committees:

Minnesota committee assignments, 2013
Education
Finance
Health, Human Services and Housing

2011-2012

In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Nienow served on the following committees:

Campaign themes

2012

Nienow's website highlighted the following campaign themes:[1]

Taxes

  • Excerpt: "Generally speaking, I believe that we over-taxed and should not pursue more increases in taxes."

State Budget

  • Excerpt: "With responsible budgeting we can balance future budget without job-hindering tax increases, let businesses expand and grow jobs, and get the state back on the sound financial footing it was on when I first left the MN Senate in 2007- and left Minnesota with a $2 Billion budget Surplus!"

Jobs and Economic Growth

  • Excerpt: "Without employers there can’t be employees. We must create an employer-friendly environment to expand the Minnesota economy. We need to restructure our tax, regulation, permitting & licensing, and work to make get state bureaucracies in a supporting role for job creation rather than a barrier to job creation."

Healthcare

  • Excerpt: "Our health care system needs dramatic changes to help improve service and reduce costs. We must reform medical malpractice system, which now mostly benefits trial lawyers. We need to open up free market competition so that more providers can compete offering better less-expensive options."

Education

  • Excerpt: "Our education system is in dire need of improvements and reform. We need more local control with less state involvement and fewer mandates. Equity in the convoluted and archaic funding formula is desperately needed, so that schools in other parts of Minnesota are not receiving upwards of twice as much per student as our local districts."

Presidential preference

2012

See also: Endorsements by state officials of presidential candidates in the 2012 election

Sean Nienow endorsed Rick Santorum in the 2012 presidential election.[2]

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.


Elections

2016

See also: Minnesota State Senate elections, 2016

Elections for the Minnesota State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election took place on August 9, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was May 31, 2016.

Mark Koran defeated Tim Nelson in the Minnesota State Senate District 32 general election.[3][4]

Minnesota State Senate, District 32 General Election, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Mark Koran 56.61% 23,992
     Democratic Tim Nelson 43.39% 18,388
Total Votes 42,380
Source: Minnesota Secretary of State


Tim Nelson ran unopposed in the Minnesota State Senate District 32 Democratic primary.[5][6]

Minnesota State Senate, District 32 Democratic Primary, 2016
Party Candidate
    Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Tim Nelson  (unopposed)


Mark Koran defeated incumbent Sean Nienow in the Minnesota State Senate District 32 Republican primary.[5][6]

Minnesota State Senate, District 32 Republican Primary, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Mark Koran 63.39% 1,709
     Republican Sean Nienow Incumbent 36.61% 987
Total Votes 2,696

This candidate ran in one of Ballotpedia's races to watch in 2016. Read more »

2012

See also: Minnesota State Senate elections, 2012

Nienow won election in District 32 in 2012 due to redistricting. He was unopposed in the August 14 Republican primary and defeated Jeske Noordergraaf (D) in the general election on November 6, 2012.[7][8]

Minnesota State Senate, District 32, General Election, 2012
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.pngSean Nienow Incumbent 54.3% 21,955
     Democratic Jeske Noordergraaf 45.7% 18,450
Total Votes 40,405

2010

See also: Minnesota State Senate elections, 2010

Nienow had no opponent in the primary. He defeated incumbent Rick Olseen (DFL) in the general election.[9]

Minnesota State Senate, District 17 (2010)
Candidates Votes Percent
Green check mark transparent.png Sean Nienow (R) 21171 56.01%
Rick Olseen (DFL) 16569 43.83%
Write-In 62 0.16%

Campaign finance summary


Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.


Sean Nienow campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2012Minnesota State Senate, District 32Won $33,831 N/A**
2010Minnesota State Senate, District 17Won $30,963 N/A**
2006Minnesota State Senate, District 17Lost $47,546 N/A**
2002Minnesota State Senate, District 17Won $28,541 N/A**
Grand total$140,881 N/A**
Sources: OpenSecretsFederal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Minnesota

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states.  To contribute to the list of Minnesota scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.









2017

In 2017, the Minnesota State Legislature was in session from January 3 through May 22. The legislature held a special session from May 23 to May 26.

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to labor issues.
Legislators are scored on their support for the organization's principles, which it defines as "provid[ing] a basis for a constitutionally limited government established to sustain life, liberty, justice, property rights and free enterprise."
Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to education.
Legislators are scored on their votes on labor issues.
Legislators are scored on bills related to reproductive health issues.
Legislators are scored on how they voted on tax and fiscal legislation.
Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.


2016


2015


2014


2013


2012


2011

Taxpayers League of Minnesota

The Taxpayers League of Minnesota, a Minnesota-based taxpayer advocacy organization, releases a legislative scorecard for the Minnesota House of Representatives and Minnesota State Senate once a year. The scorecard gives each legislator a score based on how they voted in the prior legislative term on tax issues and “their efforts to balance the state budget without a tax increase.” The organization also compiles a legislator’s individual "Lifetime Score."[10]

2013

Nienow received a score of 92 percent in the 2013 scorecard, ranking 7th out of all 67 Minnesota State Senate members.[11]

2012

Nienow received a score of 71 percent in the 2012 scorecard, ranking 14th out of all 67 Minnesota State Senate members.[12]

2011

Nienow received a score of 85 percent in the 2011 scorecard, ranking 4th out of all 67 Minnesota State Senate members.[13]

Personal

Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Nienow and his wife, Cyndy, have six children.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term Sean + Nienow + Minnesota + Senate

External links

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by
Warren Limmer (R)
Minnesota State Senate District 32
February 2013–2017
Succeeded by
Mark Koran (R)
Preceded by
Rick Olseen (DFL)
Minnesota State Senate District 17
2011–2013
Succeeded by
Lyle Koenen (DFL)


Current members of the Minnesota State Senate
Leadership
Senate President:Bobby Champion
Majority Leader:Erin Murphy
Minority Leader:Mark Johnson
Senators
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
Rob Kupec (D)
District 5
Paul Utke (R)
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
Jeff Howe (R)
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
District 35
District 36
District 37
District 38
Susan Pha (D)
District 39
District 40
District 41
District 42
District 43
Ann Rest (D)
District 44
Tou Xiong (D)
District 45
District 46
Ron Latz (D)
District 47
District 48
District 49
District 50
District 51
District 52
District 53
District 54
District 55
District 56
District 57
District 58
District 59
District 60
District 61
District 62
District 63
District 64
District 65
District 66
District 67
Democratic Party (34)
Republican Party (33)