Career
Petersen has lived in his district since he was eight years old, playing Little League and Legion Baseball. He is a graduate of Coon Rapids High School in Coon Rapids. Petersen was elected to the House in 2010.
His legislative priorities include funding equity for schools with high needs but insufficient revenue and "value-added" teacher evaluations that measure effectiveness by student progress rather than teacher proficiency.
Petersen also believes the state needs to learn to budget and make ends meet in a tougher economy just as his constituents have had to do, calling it "kitchen table budgeting."
He authored legislation to cut income taxes and coauthored the 21st Century Voter Idaho bill and a repeal of the Legacy sales tax The Anoka County Watchdog has called Petersen Coon Rapids"s most conservative House member ever.
On February 21, 2012, Petersen announced his intention to run in the new Senate District 35 encompassing Andover, Ramsey and Anoka. He received endorsements from North Star Tea Party Patriots Chair Walter Hudson, Radio Network Controller committeewoman Pat Anderson, Republican
Peggy Scott, and Senator.
Michelle Benson. He was elected to the Senate in November 2012, defeating DFLer Peter Perovich. In 2013, he cosponsored a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the state of Minnesota, which passed the Senate on May 13 with Petersen the only Republican voting for lieutenant
Two years earlier he voted in favor of amending the Minnesota constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Petersen resigned from the Senate on October 31, 2015.