This week Paul Neiffer has a conversation with former U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who as the U.S. Representative for Minnesota’s 7th congressional district from 1991 to 2021.
Peterson was born in Fargo, N.D., grew up on a farm in Baker, Minn.
“I started off farming right out of high school,” he says. “But we had a year where we drowned out three times in one year, which kind of soured me on all that. So, I went to college and got my accounting and business degree and got my CPA. When I was 23, I ended up with my own practice here in Detroit Lakes. We had 1,100 tax clients, and we did them by hand.”
Peterson spent a decade as a member of the Minnesota Senate.
“It became apparent that I either had to get out of politics or get into politics full-time,” he says. So, I sold my practice.”
In 1990, Peterson was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he spent 30 years.
“I was appointed the ag committee,” he says. “Whenever there was a tax issue regarding agriculture or farmers, I was involved in it. I spent time educating the members on the ways and means committee on our side of the aisle as it relates to agriculture.”
Peterson served as House agriculture committee chairman from 2007 to 2010 and again in 2019 to 2020.
During his political career, his goal was to garner bipartisan support for issues.
“I would not move ahead with something unless we had bipartisan support for it,” he says. “That was painful sometimes.”
Peterson reflects on his political career, discusses current tax policy and more on “The Farm CPA Podcast” with Paul Neiffer:
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