After graduating from Prior Lake High School, Eric Pratt attended the University of Colorado and earned his degree in Economics. While there, he played on the football team and learned lessons that he continues to use when facing professional and personal challenges.

Eric has worked in Banking and Finance for over 30 years, leading teams in risk management and fraud prevention. Working in a highly regulated industry has shown him that prescriptive rules usually come with unintended consequences. The role of government should be to assure fair competition has a chance to flourish--not to tell companies how to run their business.

He was elected to four terms on the Prior Lake-Savage School Board, serving several terms as Chair and as Treasurer. When he joined the School Board, they faced a $1 million deficit and were borrowing $3 million to cover expenses. Working with the other Board members, they paid off the debt, lowered property taxes, and saw test scores rise. These accomplishments were recognized when Prior Lake was first named as one of the nation's top high schools by Newsweek.

In the Senate, Eric is seen as a senator who can work across the aisle and get bills signed into law in a divided government. He led the effort to provide disaster relief to communities ravaged by floods in 2014, and to re-stripe Highway 169 during the 2019 floods. His years in banking allowed him to assemble advocates across the political spectrum and pass nation-leading consumer protections for PACE home improvement financing. He led a bipartisan effort to restructure the Met Council to hold them more responsive to the needs of cities, counties, and citizens in the metro area. He also led the charge to pay off Minnesota’s unemployment insurance debt, making sure that our small businesses and their employees were not financially punished for being forced to close by the Governor’s orders.

Eric and his wife, Tina, have two children and reside in Prior Lake.