On Minnesota Now, we’re getting out of the studio and into the community, where news and life is happening. In a new series we are calling Out to Lunch, we sit down for a meal with people you may have heard from on the show and get to know them at a deeper, personal level over lunch.

Our lunch guest: House Speaker Lisa Demuth

The restaurant: The New Louisiana Cafe in St. Paul

The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above for the full conversation.

I understand that you had an unconventional path into politics. Take me back to that time and what brought you into politics?

We have four kids, all adults now and we have six grandkids too. Two of our kids had already graduated from high school, and two were still in elementary and middle school. I had never thought of running for public office.

I had been able to stay home when our third daughter was born, but being able to step out [of the workforce] was a priority that I personally had. Harder than anything I had probably done because of the isolation.

So I took that time and I got very involved in my local church, and then I started a group for mothers of preschoolers in the area with another younger mom, and just tried to find connections, how people could grow and learn. I had been part of the American Cancer Society. There were just different things that I had done.

It sounds like the type of person that people would look at you and go, ‘You should run for office.’

Nobody had ever said that. But in 2007, there was an article in the paper that said our local school board had three spots that would be up for election. The reason that really caught my eye is the election for school board before had right around 15 people that had run. And I remember thinking, “Where were all of those people, if all of these people wanted to run just a couple of years ago? How come they disappeared? What changed in our school?”

So I remember tearing that article out and leaving it on my husband’s plate for dinner. I said, “Hey, you need to run for the school board.” And he just looked at me and he said, “I would never run for the school board. You do it.”

And that was the first I had even heard those words. And I remember immediately my response, without really giving it any thought, was like, “I can’t do that.” And he asked the question that changed everything to where things are now, is “Why not?”

I wasn’t looking to have a political career. I wasn’t looking to do something different. I just stepped back and I had a few conversations. Now, this was in August for that November election, so it wasn't like it was a year or two of planning.

I talked to a few people, and I thought, “You know what, I'll step in.” I had to do it as a write-in. There were actually four people that ran for the three spots, and I was one that was elected. I ended up serving three full terms.

You are the first Black woman to serve as Speaker of the House. And if you talk about it, people say, ‘Well, why is she talking about it?’ If you don’t really want to talk about it people say, ‘Why doesn't she?’ What is that like?

I’ll go all the way back to being born in a small town and then we moved to the metro. Because of being biracial, I was never Black enough for the Black kids, and I was never white enough for the white kids. I just didn’t fit. And so I think that tension was probably something that has always been for me, where it’s just a part of life.

So I’ve had people say, “Do you feel like you’ve ever been held back because you’re a woman?” Well, I know that exists for some people. I think I was more judged one way or the other, because of being biracial or being a Black woman or a Black little girl with super, super curly hair in the late ‘60s in an all white community, and it wasn’t well received.

So becoming caucus leader two years ago, I had people ask, “You would be a different face for the Republican House Caucus. What do you think?” And I said, “If you would vote for me for that, please don’t. But if you think I can lead our caucus over the next two years and get us in the majority, do the things that needed to be done, please vote for me. But if it’s just because I’m a different face or a different race, I don’t want that.”

I didn’t want that hanging over my shoulders or over my mind over the next few years.

One of my first jobs was within a title insurance company. I remember needing to fill out the HR form. At that time, you could only pick one box on the racial part. I fit both, and the HR director couldn’t accept that. I said, “Well, what are you short of? What do you actually need that I could fill for you?” That was back in the late ‘80s.

So to know now that we are still trying to not unify people, but create what, maybe the right motive, but the way it’s done, causes more division. That’s not where we need to be as a state or as a country.

I am qualified to be the Speaker of the House, I have been elected to do that. I am qualified, but it’s not because I fit a category as a Black woman. It’s because I have the qualifications to lead the state of Minnesota in the House of Representatives right now.

We like to finish out this segment with a question we call ‘The last bite.’ What are the ingredients to carving out your own path in life?

The ingredients to carve out a pathway for my life would be resiliency, faith is super important to me, my family is very important to me. And I think the commonality of all of those things put together are what gives me the opportunity to try an uncharted path and know that I can succeed.

If I build the right people around me and work hard, and if it goes different than I thought, I still have a good and a soft place to land after. That if all of this would go away, I still have a phenomenal core of who I am.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.