Wright County's Amy Koch Steps Into Leadership Position

Let's hear it for the girls.

An historical day unfolded Tuesday in the Minnesota State Senate, as women took officer spots for the first time in history, including prominent posts like the President of the Senate Michelle Fischbach and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch.

"It's an honor," Fischbach told her colleagues on the Senate floor, "to lead this esteemed establishment. I will do my best."

Koch, the first female majority leader and first Republican of any kind to lead the Minnesota Senate in nearly four decades, promised to lead a party that will be accommodating in power.

"We have learned many lessons over the last 38 years. The most important, perhaps, is we know how to treat the minority. We will be fair," she said, speaking in front of her parents, husband, Chris, and daughter, Rachel, who was on the Senate floor.

As for the "women's movement" in the Senate, Koch wasn't sure what the keys were to the new leadership.

"I don't know if it's timing or what. We really don't know what took so long," she said with a smile. "I think more than these leaders being a man or a woman, it was more about who could do the best job, and it happened to be the four of us."

The leader of two prominent Senate committees – tax and education – are also women.

"Really, there's no one more deserving," said Edina Sen. Geoff Michel of Koch's rise to the leadership post. "She's worked hard, and it paid off for us two months ago."