In Memory of Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman

On Friday, June 13, 2025, two Minnesota state lawmakers were targeted for murder by a MAGA terrorist in the name of the anti-abortion movement.

State Senator John Hoffman and Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman.

I met both of these elected officials on many occasions. Both have excellent records of public service and advocacy.

As of writing, Senator Hoffman is in stable but critical condition, as is his wife.

Unfortunately, this terrorist was successful in murdering Speaker Hortman and her husband in their home.

Speaker Hortman was a giant in Minnesota politics, and I would argue that her political capabilities when it came to managing the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party or DFL House Caucus were equivalent to the abilities of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In the 2023–2024 legislative session, Minnesota passed a wide range of badly needed legislation and reforms at light speed, including ensuring abortion rights directly after the Dobbs decision. She was a reliable ally of the Twin Cities and one that my home state needed at a time when it needed it the most.

I got to see her work when I was a committee page for the Minnesota House of Representatives Sergeant-at-Arms office during the 2019 session. My job as a page was to help set up and clean up rooms for committee meetings and act as someone who could move papers around for members of both parties. I acted in a nonpartisan capacity in this position.

She was tough, smart, and focused, and she did everything she could to make Minnesota a state that worked for everyone. I was always impressed with how she could manage the House DFL Caucus despite the differences.

In person, she was gracious and kind. I was running an errand for her in my capacity as a page, and when I got the job done in a timely manner, she warmly commented to me, “You’re fast.”

I knew just how powerful Speaker Hortman was at the time, third in line for the governor’s office after the lieutenant governor, so it meant a lot to me that someone with that kind of power noticed my work ethic at the Capitol.

Because the MN Senate was held by the Republicans during the 2019 session, Speaker Hortman was not able to get everything, but she was still a powerful political force.

Now she is dead at the hands of a terrorist, a terrorist who wanted to kill far more elected Democrats for daring to ensure basic bodily autonomy for women, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Senator Tina Smith.

There can be no mercy or reconciliation with Republicans after this. Their policies and political tactics got us to this point.

I would say to the Republicans: Spare us the fucking crocodile tears. I know you don’t mean any of it.

One of yours murdered someone I looked up to. Not to mention the head of your party has pardoned political terrorists. So I know the Republican Party is comfortable with violence.

To Speaker Melissa Hortman: Requiescat in pace. You will be missed.