Matt Bliss

Republican Party

Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B

Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

3

Predecessor:Steve Green (R)

Prior offices:

Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A

Years in office: 2021 - 2023

Predecessor:John Persell (D)

Successor:Krista Knudsen (R)

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Years in office: 2017 - 2019

Predecessor:John Persell (D)

Successor:John Persell (D)

Compensation

Base salary

$51,750/year

Per diem

$86/day

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Navy

Personal

Profession

Business owner

Contact

Official website

Official Facebook

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign X

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Matt Bliss (Republican Party) is a member of theMinnesota House of Representatives, representingDistrict 2B. He assumed office on January 3, 2023. His current term ends on January 12, 2027.

Bliss (Republican Party) ran for re-election to theMinnesota House of Representatives to representDistrict 2B. He won in the general election onNovember 5, 2024.

Biography

Matt Bliss lives in Pennington, Minnesota. Bliss served in the U.S. Navy. His career experience includes owning a business.^[1][2] Bliss has served as the president of the Pennington Resort Association.^[1]

Committee assignments

2025-2026

Bliss was assigned to the following committees:

• Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Committee
• Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee
• Labor, Industry, Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Committee,Co-Chair

2023-2024

Bliss was assigned to the following committees:

• Children and Families Finance and Policy
• Elections Finance and Policy
• Labor, Industry, Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Committee

2021-2022

Bliss was assigned to the following committees:

• Labor, Industry, Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Committee
• House Housing Finance and Policy Committee
• Industrial Education and Economic Development Finance and Policy Committee (decommissioned)

2017 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according toBillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Elections

2024

See also: Minnesota House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B

IncumbentMatt Bliss defeatedMichael Reyes in the general election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Matt Bliss (R)	63.7	14,372
	Submit photo	Michael Reyes (D)	36.2	8,168
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	10

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 22,550
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled.Michael Reyes advanced from the Democratic primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. IncumbentMatt Bliss advanced from the Republican primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B.

Campaign finance

Endorsements

2022

See also: Minnesota House of Representatives elections, 2022

General election

General election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B

IncumbentMatt Bliss defeatedErika Bailey-Johnson in the general election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Matt Bliss (R)	63.5	11,310
		Erika Bailey-Johnson (D)	36.5	6,505
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	8

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 17,823
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled.Erika Bailey-Johnson advanced from the Democratic primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. IncumbentMatt Bliss advanced from the Republican primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 2B.

Campaign finance

2020

See also: Minnesota House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A

Matt Bliss defeated incumbentJohn Persell in the general election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Matt Bliss (R)	53.4	11,482
		John Persell (D)	46.5	9,996
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	36

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 21,514
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. IncumbentJohn Persell advanced from the Democratic primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled.Matt Bliss advanced from the Republican primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A.

Campaign finance

2018

See also:Minnesota House of Representatives elections, 2018

General election

General election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A

John Persell defeated incumbentMatt Bliss in the general election for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Persell (D)	50.0	8,454
		Matt Bliss (R)	49.9	8,443
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	7

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 16,904
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A

John Persell advanced from the Democratic primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A on August 14, 2018.

		Candidate
✔		John Persell

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A

IncumbentMatt Bliss advanced from the Republican primary for Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A on August 14, 2018.

		Candidate
✔		Matt Bliss

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

2016

See also:Minnesota House of Representatives elections, 2016

Elections for theMinnesota House of Representatives took place in 2016. The primary election took place on August 9, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was May 31, 2016.

Matt Bliss defeated incumbentJohn Persell in the Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A general election.^[3][4]

Minnesota House of Representatives, District 5A General Election, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Matt Bliss	53.95%	10,318
	Democratic	John PersellIncumbent	46.05%	8,808
Total Votes				19,126
Source:Minnesota Secretary of State

IncumbentJohn Persell ran unopposed in the Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A Democratic primary.^[5][6]

Minnesota House of Representatives, District 5A Democratic Primary, 2016
Party		Candidate
	Democratic	John PersellIncumbent (unopposed)

Matt Bliss ran unopposed in the Minnesota House of Representatives District 5A Republican primary.^[5][6]

Minnesota House of Representatives, District 5A Republican Primary, 2016
Party		Candidate
	Republican	Matt Bliss (unopposed)

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also:Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Matt Bliss did not completeBallotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Matt Bliss did not completeBallotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Matt Bliss did not completeBallotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

2016

Bliss' campaign website highlighted the following issues:^[7]

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf.Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at theFEC website. Clickhere for more on federal campaign finance law andhere for more on state campaign finance law.

Scorecards

See also:State legislative scorecards andState legislative scorecards in Minnesota

Ascorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states.  To contribute to the list of Minnesota scorecards, email suggestions toeditor@ballotpedia.org.

2024

2023

2022

2021

2018

2017

See also

2024 Elections

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External links

Footnotes

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