Kjersti Stenseng

Kjersti Stenseng (born 4 September 1974) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party currently serving as the party secretary since 2015. She also served as a deputy member of the Storting from Oppland from 2013 to 2017.

Education
She finished her secondary education at Vinstra Upper Secondary School in 1993. She minored in sociology and modern history at the Nord-Trøndelag University College and Lillehammer University College before studying political science and history at the University of Oslo. She also took teacher's education and worked as a teacher in Kvam and Vinstra from 1997 to 1999. From 1999 to 2010 she worked in the Peer Gynt Festival, the last nine years as director, and from 2010 to 2011 she was the director of the Norwegian Festival of Literature.

Local politics
She served as a municipal council member in Sør-Fron from 2007 to 2011. She became leader in Oppland Labour Party in 2010 and also national board member, and was promoted to central board member in 2011.

Government
She was an acting political adviser in the Ministry of Culture from January to August 2010, then acting political adviser again from June to October 2011. From November to December 2011 she was an acting State Secretary in the same ministry. From 1 January 2012 she was an acting political adviser again, then political adviser from March and State Secretary from May 2012 to 1 October 2013.

Parliament
She was elected as a deputy representative to the Storting, Norway's parliament, from Oppland in 2013. As Rigmor Aasrud from Oppland was a member of the outgoing Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet, Stenseng met as a regular representative during the two weeks before the cabinet change.

Party politics
At the 2015 party conference, she was elected party secretary. She has been re-elected at every convention since (2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023).

Mere weeks before the 2023 party convention, former deputy leader and mayor of Tana Helga Pedersen was open to succeeding Stenseng as party secretary as part of a greater renewal of the party's leadership. This was despite the fact that Stenseng had previously announced that she would seek re-election. On 30 April, Pedersen announced that she wouldn't stand as a candidate to succeed Stenseng, arguing that she didn't have sufficient support within the party. This marked the first time that Stenseng's position had been challenged.

Personal life
She has two daughters from a previous relationship. Currently, she is in a relationship with former president of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports Tom Tvedt. In January 2024, she announced that they would be getting married in August the same year.