Representing district 59B in the Minnesota House for more than 30 years, Phyllis Kahn has become an extremely influential voice in the Minnesota House of Representatives. A powerful advocate of human rights, education, health care and the environment, Kahn is a legislative powerhouse. She has chief-authored 80 pieces of legislation this session, topping all but two House colleagues. Kahn currently chairs the State Government Finance Division Committee, where she serves the strategic position of appropriating state funds. A retired professor of biophysics at the University of Minnesota, Kahn is an intellectual heavyweight and has long been an ally of the University. During her remarkable legislative tenure, Kahn has become an icon of Minnesota progressive politics, pressing others to question long-held beliefs when they clash with her democratic, egalitarian principles. She boldly argued for lowering the voting age to 12, stating, âÄúHistory has shown us that when a segment of society is denied the right to vote, all the rights of that segment of society are then inferior.âÄù Kahn was chief author and advocate of the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act in 1975, one of the first public smoking bans in the world. Signed into law later that year, it became a template for other legislation protecting the public from secondhand smoke. Kahn has garnered state funding for battered womenâÄôs shelters, wildlife, park and recreation facilities, and the arts. A highly experienced, effective and principled legislator, the Minnesota Daily editorial board proudly endorses Phyllis Kahn for State Representative.