Paul Koering (born December 17, 1964) is a Minnesota politician who serves on the County Board of Crow Wing County, Minnesota. He is a former member of the Minnesota Senate from Fort Ripley. A Republican, he represented District 12, which includes all or portions of Crow Wing and Morrison counties, including the city of Brainerd. A liquor store owner, funeral car service owner, and small farmer, he served two terms, but was defeated by former Rep. Paul Gazelka in the August 10, 2010, Republican primary election. He was elected to the Crow Wing County Board in 2012 and re-elected unopposed in 2016; he represents the first district which contains the southern portion of Crow Wing County, including Fort Ripley, Roosevelt Township, Oak Lawn Township and the extreme northeast portion of the city of Brainerd. Koering was first elected to the senate in 2002, defeating longtime senator and Democrat Don Samuelson, who had been the senate president. He was re-elected in 2006, overcoming both primary and general election opponents. Koering was a member of the senate's Agriculture and Veterans Committee, the Capital Investment Committee, the Health, Housing and Family Security Committee (on which he was the ranking minority party member), and the Higher Education Committee. He also served on the Finance subcommittees for the Agriculture and Veterans Budget and Policy Division, for the Health and Human Services Budget Division, and for the Higher Education Budget and Policy Division. Koering's positions tended to be conservative, including opposition to tax increases, opposition to abortion, support for tougher criminal sentences, and support for broad gun rights, including support for a general right to carry a concealed firearm. In a notable exception to that conservatism, he has sided with Senate Democrats in opposing restrictions on gay rights. He is believed to be the first openly gay Republican elected official in Minnesota, and was the only openly gay Republican member of the Minnesota Legislature to date. Koering effectively 'outed' himself by breaking from the Republican Party line on a procedural vote in the Minnesota Senate. The pivotal moment came on April 7, 2005, when then-State Senator Michele Bachmann used procedural tactics that would have forced a vote on her constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota. This vote coincided with the gay and lesbian justFair lobby day at the Capitol, as well as the second anniversary of the death of Koering's mother. Koering explicitly stated