Michael "Mike" V. Ciresi (/sərˈiːsi/ sər-EE-see) is a prominent trial attorney and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for the United States Senate from Minnesota.

[3] The fees were to be paid over two years,[4] in contrast to the 25-year annual payment scheme used to pay the plaintiffs of the case, the State of Minnesota.

As a result of the 1998 Minnesota tobacco settlement, Ciresi came to be known as a wealthy man and philanthropist, appearing regularly in the national and local press.

Ciresi ran in the 2000 Senate primary for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), spending several million dollars of his own money on the campaign.

Ciresi was handily defeated by Mark Dayton, an heir to the founders of Target Corporation, in the four-way DFL primary.

Ciresi was widely reported on June 11 as saying he was "leaving all options on the table" when questioned about a possible primary run against Franken.