What Led Jeff Howe to the Military and Then Politics

Brushes with the law as a young person, the military and now a State Senator.  This it the story of Jeff Howe.  Jeff grew up in a small town in western Minnesota named Chokio just 12 miles west of Morris.  Jeff's father was a farmer when he was a kid before selling the farm and becoming a hired hand and then a salesman of farm products.  As a young person Howe did lots of farm work.  He has 3 brothers and 1 sister.  Jeff grew up as the middle child and had many interests including hunting and sports.  The family still owns and maintains the farm near Chokio.  The 5 siblings each have a stake in the property and now run it as the Howe hunting preserve.  In high school Jeff was involved with football, wrestling and baseball.  He recalls only losing 4 football games throughout his 4 years there.  Howe was a captain for all 3 sports he was involved with.

Get our free mobile app

Following high school Jeff decided he wanted to go into farming.  He went to Willmar Community College majoring in Agri-Business.  While in Willmar Jeff got into some trouble with the law.  He had lots of speeding tickets and one specifically was life changing.  Jeff decided one night he wouldn't stop when being pursued by a state trooper.  Four troopers were able to catch him after a pursuit.  Howe went to jail for 5 days and calls the experience eye opening.  He received 5 tickets for this violation and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.  The sentenced was suspended if he would join the Navy and stop driving.  Howe joined the Navy and starting training in Memphis, Tennessee before being transferred to San Diego for more training.  He spend the rest of his service on the U.S.S. Kittyhawk.  The ship was located near the Philippines. He says for the first 6 months he called it a "pleasure cruise" but when the Iran hostage crisis came about they responded and spent 74 days off the coast of Iran.

He got out of the Navy following the crisis because the Navy and he couldn't agree on terms for him to stay.  He returned to California and sold real estate for a little while before returning to Minnesota to attend St. Cloud State.  Howe met his wife, Sherri at St. Cloud State and 3 years later they got married when he was 25.  He spend 4 years at SCSU majoring in business.  While working as a security guard at JC Penney he took a test to join the St. Cloud Fire Department.  He passed and was hired.  Howe was also a member of National Guard at this time so he'd have money for college.  He became an officer in the National Guard as well.  Jeff left the St. Cloud Fire Department in 2001 and became Fire Marshall in Waite Park where he stayed for 10 years.  In 2002 Rose Arnold resigned as County Commissioner and Howe decided to run for that seat.  He came in 4th place.

Jeff Howe enjoyed running for office despite not winning.  Jeff was deployed to Iraq as part of the National Guard in 2005 and returned in 2006.  Howe was contacted to see if he'd run for an open State House seat in 2006.  He says he wasn't ready to run at that time.  In 2008 Howe was deployed again for Iraq and was there until 2011.  Howe indicates while in Iraq this time and thought more about possibly running for office.  When he returned he ran and won a Rockville City Council seat.  After 2 years serving the City Council the house district lines changed and he was no longer in the St. Cloud district.  At that time he ran as a Republican and won 3 terms starting in 2012 in the Minnesota State House.  Michelle Fischbach was the State Senator in the area but she became Lieutenant Governor and chose to run with Tim Pawlenty for Governor.  Due to this change the Senate seat was open and Howe was encouraged to run for it.  He won it in 2018, and was re-elected 2020 and 2022.

Howe and his wife have 3 boys and 1 girl.  If you'd like to listen to my 4-part conversation with Jeff Howe it is available below.