ST. PAUL - Nicholas Daudt stood at the ready, holding a large white oak gavel, awaiting his uncle's orders.
When uncle Kurt Daudt told the 7-year-old, the gavel fell, notifying Minnesota House members that an action was official.
Opening day of the 2015 legislative session on Tuesday included some personal touches, like the elder Daudt - still young at 41 - giving his nephew the duty of pounding the new gavel minutes after becoming the youngest House speaker in decades. The Crown representative's family had a front-row seat and his minister offered the opening prayer.
One thing that will endure, besides memories, is the gavel, made from an oak tree on the Daudt family farm, where the speaker lives.
Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a woodworker, "offered to make the gavel for me..." Daudt said. "It came out just beautifully."
ADVERTISEMENT
Since Daudt will use the gavel every day the House is in session, he said, "it is a great reminder of where I came from and who I represent."
When Daudt was elected speaker, his family gave him big hugs, but so did the woman who served as temporary House clerk Tuesday: Rep. Sondra Erickson of Princeton. She was Daudt's English teacher.
