Perham native Jordan Schroeer works communications for Sen. Tina Smith

Jordan Schroeer’s route from Perham to the communications team for U.S. Sen. Tina Smith runs through Moorhead, a campus newsroom and eight years in journalism before landing in Washington, DC. Schroeer, who grew up in Perham and now lives in Moorhead, works in communications for the retiring Minnesota senator.

At Minnesota State University Moorhead, Schroeer earned degrees in political science and broadcast journalism. MSUM says his career began in the campus newsroom, Campus News, where he started building the reporting and messaging skills that later carried him into political communications. The university also says Schroeer spent eight years working in journalism before moving into his current role and later received the MSUM Foundation’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award.

Schroeer’s path also reflects a personal story he has discussed publicly, including growing up as a gay man. That part of his background adds another layer to a career that already moves between small-town Minnesota, campus media and the high-pressure world of Senate communications.

Tina Smith’s office remains active in the 119th Congress, and Congress.gov shows she introduced legislation in March 2026, including a bill on maternal health data and another on livestock consolidation research. Smith has served in the U.S. Senate since January 2018, and her Senate biography says she has worked on health care, rural broadband, agriculture and mental health, the same issue areas that shape much of the communication around her office.

For Otter Tail County readers, Schroeer’s story lands close to home because it shows how often Minnesota’s political world is staffed by people with local roots and newsroom training. A Perham graduate who learned the craft at MSUM is now helping carry the public message for one of the state’s senior federal voices, a reminder that the distance between small-town Minnesota and Washington is sometimes shorter than it looks.