David Strom

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David Strom (born 1964) has been President of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota since January 2004. Prior to serving as President, he held positions as Vice President and Legislative Director.

Strom graduated from Carleton College (1987) in Northfield, MN with a degree in Political Science and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science from Duke University (1992). He has taught political philosophy at Duke University, North Carolina State University, Carleton College, and the University of St. Thomas.

Strom is a Fellow at the Claremont Institute, a regular contributor to the local ABC affiliate’s Sunday morning news program At Issue and hosts a weekly radio show on AM 1280 The Patriot. He now has a regular weekly column at Townhall.com, a conservative-leaning website formerly owned by the Heritage Foundation.

In recent years Strom has been best known as a consistent conservative voice, taking both Democrats and Republicans to task when their actions conflict with the limited-government vision of the Taxpayers League. While at first seen as an intemperate voice from the right, Strom has been more recently seen as simply a forceful advocate for his position and is often now seen as defining the furthest edge of the mainstream limited-government position.

Strom is perhaps one of the individuals most frequently criticized by the Editorial Page of the Star-Tribune, the largest newspaper in the Twin Cities.

The Taxpayers League was initially seen as a strong ally of Governor Tim Pawlenty when he was first elected, but over the years the relationship soured. Now, as often as not Pawlenty and the Taxpayers League are at odds over policy, and Strom has not shied away from criticizing Pawlenty's transformation into a "progressive-conservative."

In 2004, Strom was named Minnesota’s “Best Villain” by City Pages, an alternative weekly newspaper based in Minneapolis, MN.