| Pat Shortridge | |
| Office: | Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota |
| Term Start: | December 31, 2011 |
| Term End: | April 6, 2013 |
| Predecessor: | Tony Sutton |
| Successor: | Keith Downey |
| Birth Place: | Winona, Minnesota |
| Party: | Republican Party of Minnesota |
| Alma Mater: | Macalester College |
| Occupation: | lobbyist |
Pat Shortridge is a Minnesota lobbyist, former Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota and founder of Conservative Solutions Project.
Shortridge was born in Winona, Minnesota. He attended Macalester College.[1]
After graduating from Macalester College, Shortridge became an intern, then paid staffer, of Texas Representative Dick Armey,[1] eventually working for him for eleven years.[2] He left Armey's employment in 2001 to become a lobbyist for Enron, a position he held for approximately six months before the company went into bankruptcy as a result of the Enron scandal.[1] [3]
After the brief position at Enron, Shortridge returned to Minnesota to work for Representative Mark Kennedy for five years.[2] He ran Kennedy's campaign in the 2006 senate election, which Kennedy lost by over 20 percentage points to DFL candidate Amy Klobuchar.[4]
In 2011, Minnesota Republican chairman Tony Sutton abruptly departed among controversy.[5] [6] Shortridge was elected by 350 party delegates at a meeting on December 31 in St. Cloud, Minnesota over two other candidates.[4] The Republican Party of Minnesota faced a debt of over $2 million at the time of Shortridge's election, which he managed to reduce significantly during his first year as chairman.[7] He has insisted that he would only serve out the remainder of Sutton's term which expires on April 6, 2013, when party delegates will select a new chair.[8] He was succeeded by Keith Downey.[9]
Shortridge resides in Lino Lakes, Minnesota.[1]