Samantha Sencer-Mura

Samantha Sencer-Mura (born February 2, 1989) is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2023. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), Sencer-Mura represents District 63A in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, which includes parts of Minneapolis in Hennepin County.

A fourth-generation Japanese-American, Sencer-Mura was raised in Minneapolis and attended South High School. Her father is David Mura, a poet and playwright. Her grandparents were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II.

Sencer-Mura earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in social justice and critical theory from Occidental College and a Master of Education in school leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Sencer-Mura began her career as a teacher at Citizen Schools in New York City. She later worked as a coordinator at Safe Passages and community schools director of United for Success Academy in Oakland, California. In 2017, Sencer-Mura returned to Minneapolis to join 826 MSP, a nonprofit after-school program, as executive director.

Sencer-Mura was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2022. She first ran for an open seat created by legislative redistricting and the retirement of 11-term DFL incumbent Jim Davnie. She is the first Japanese-American elected to the state legislature.

Sencer-Mura serves on the Agriculture Finance and Policy, Education Finance, Workforce Development Finance and Policy, and Transportation Finance and Policy Committees. She is a member of the House People of Color and Indigenous (POCI) Caucus and the Minnesota Asian and Pacific (MAP) Caucus.

Political positions

During the 2023 session, Sencer-Mura sponsored anti-hate crime legislation that would provide money to better track bias crimes and fund law enforcement trainings, citing anti-Asian backlash related to COVID-19's origins and saying "our communities are living in this state of red alert".

Sencer-Mura wrote a bill that would require Minnesota high schools offer an ethnic studies course, saying, "students of all racial and ethnic identities benefit from ethnic studies". She sponsored a transit safety bill after an 87-year-old woman in her district was injured while using public transit.

Sencer-Mura lives in Minneapolis with her spouse, Lance, and has one child.