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Tag: Melissa Hortman

  • No, Gov. Tim Walz was not involved in lawmaker’s killing

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    President Donald Trump amplified the unsubstantiated claim that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ordered a state lawmaker’s assassination. 

    In June, a gunman attacked Minnesota lawmakers, shooting and killing state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and shooting and injuring state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

    Vance Luther Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, was arrested June 15 on murder and attempted murder charges in connection with the shootings.

    Months later, Trump gave air to unproven conspiracy theories about Boelter’s motivation and mischaracterized the suspect’s connection to Walz. 

    “Did Tim Walz really have Melissa Hoertman assassinated???” read text on the video Trump shared in a Jan. 3 Truth Social post, misspelling Hortman’s name. 

    There is no evidence that Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, was involved in the attack, which investigators described as politically motivated. The claim stems from a link between Walz and Boelter that sparked wild theories from conservative influencers. Hortman, a former House speaker, was a member of the state’s Democratic Farm Labor Party, as are Hoffman and Walz.

    The Trump administration did not respond to our request for comment. 

    Hortman’s children asked Trump to remove his post, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. Republican state Sen. Julia Coleman called for people to reject “baseless conspiracy theories.” Walz and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also condemned Trump’s post.

    Months after announcing he would seek a third term as governor, Walz dropped out of the Minnesota governor race Jan. 5, amid questions of fraud in his state.  

    Minnesota Democratic Rep. Melissa Hortman, then House speaker, stands in front of a bookshelf in her office in St. Paul, Minn., May 23, 2023. Hortman and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot at their home June 14, 2025.

    The video draws on unproven theories about the attack

    The video Trump shared included multiple falsehoods, including that Boelter had been “Tim Walz’s aide” and that Boelter worked for Walz “for years.” 

    Conservative influencers first said Walz was implicated in the attack after noticing that in 2019 Walz reappointed Boelter to serve as a “business member” on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board, a nonpartisan group charged with advising the governor and Legislature on workforce policy. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democratic Farmer Labor Party member, first appointed Boelter to the board in 2016, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.

    The board has about 60 members from the public sector, the private sector, organized labor and community-based groups, its website said. The governor appoints 41 of its members.

    Walz’s spokesperson told PolitiFact in June that appointments to the workforce board aren’t the same as positions in the governor’s office or cabinet, and that Walz had no relationship with Boelter. 

    Steve Kalina, who places himself on the other side of the political spectrum from Walz and has served on the governor’s workforce board since 2019, told the Star Tribune in June that the board does not interact with the governor on a regular basis.

    “It’s goofy to make those stretches that the suspect was a close tie to the governor, a close appointee,” Kalina said. 

    The video said that Boelter had written a letter to the FBI saying “it was Tim Walz who forced him” to attack the Democratically-aligned lawmakers. 

    In July, federal prosecutors said Boelter had confessed to the shootings in a handwritten letter in which he’d also claimed to be acting on secret orders from Walz. Boelter said Walz had instructed him to kill Minnesota’s U.S. senators because “Tim wants to be senator.” Boelter wrote that he acted only after someone threatened his family. 

    The acting U.S. attorney prosecuting the case against Boelter said the letter was fantasy.

    People attend a candlelight vigil for former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, who were fatally shot, at the state Capitol, June 18, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP)

    No evidence the killing was linked to Hortman’s immigrant health care vote

    The video said Hortman had been killed in part because she voted “to take away health care from illegal immigrants.” 

    Before she was killed, Hortman voted with Republicans to pass a bill that included a measure removing adults who are in the U.S. illegally from the state’s MinnesotaCare health program. Hortman opposed the measure, but voted for it as part of a budget compromise. 

    Law enforcement officials have not linked Hortman’s killing to the vote. Officials said Boelter had carefully planned his attack and had a list of dozens of Democratic targets in Minnesota and at least three other states.

    After Trump posted the video, Melissa Hortman’s son, Colin, told the Star Tribune that his mother had voted for the bill because it was the only way to avoid a government shutdown. 

    The video also appeared to conflate Hortman’s health care vote and fraud scandals roiling Minnesota. The state’s oversight of federal and state funds had already been under scrutiny when conservative influencer Nick Shirley claimed in a YouTube video that Somali-run day care facilities in Minnesota had fraudulently taken funds meant to help low-income families afford childcare. 

    The day care allegations follow other high-profile fraud incidents in Minnesota: In 2022, dozens of people, most of them Somali, were charged in connection with a fraud scheme; prosecutors alleged the group stole $250 million in federal child nutrition programs. Late last year, federal prosecutors announced initial charges related to what they said were other welfare fraud schemes in Minnesota.

    The video said the fraud scandals all tie “back to Walz.” It questioned whether Hortman was killed “because she voted against a multibillion-dollar money laundering fraud” that “heavily implicated illegal aliens,” and Somali migrants in particular. An estimated 100,000 people who identify as Somali live in Minnesota and the majority are U.S. citizens.

    Law enforcement officials have not linked Hortman’s killing to fraud. 

    The Trump administration responded to these fraud allegations by freezing federal child care funds in several states and expanding its immigration crackdown. 

    Minnesota’s initial probe into the day care fraud claims has not uncovered widespread wrongdoing, CNN reported. State officials reported that the child care centers Shirley’s video accused of fraud were operating normally. The Minnesota Star Tribune and CBS News investigated the day care centers in Shirley’s video, finding that at least seven of the businesses’ received citations for various violations, but no evidence of fraud. 

    Our ruling 

    Trump shared a video that alleged Walz had Hortman killed. 

    In 2019, Walz reappointed Boelter to a state board, but we found no evidence the two were closely acquainted or that Walz was somehow linked to the shootings. Boelter was first appointed to the board by Walz’s predecessor. Walz’s spokesperson previously said the governor appoints thousands of people of all political affiliations to boards and commissions and Walz had no relationship with Boelter. 

    In July, prosecutors said Boelter had alleged in a letter that he was acting on Walz’s orders, but they dismissed the letter’s claim as unsubstantiated fantasy. Prosecutors have named no other suspects in the case.

    We rate Trump’s claim that Walz had Hortman assassinated False.

    PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

    RELATED: How conservative X accounts promoted wild theory implicating Gov. Tim Walz in lawmaker’s killing 

    RELATED: Tim Walz says he takes responsibility for jailing MN fraudsters. He’s wrong

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  • Miller-Meeks calls for more free speech, condemns celebrating political violence

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    Sep. 20—Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks this past weekend called for more discourse and free speech in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination while also condemning an Oskaloosa teacher who exercised his free speech by celebrating the conservative activist’s death in an inflammatory post on social media.

    “We need more debate. We need more discourse. We need more free speech,” she said. “But we also have to hold people accountable.”

    The congresswoman’s conflicting message was given during the Jasper County Republican Party Trapshoot fundraiser on Sept. 13 in Newton. Miller-Meeks prefaced her remarks by saying there is a lot of extremism in politics now and that elected officials should be counted on to “bring down the temperature.”

    Miller-Meeks also told fellow party members that there is no place for political violence in the United States and that Republicans have to make that known. She also mentioned that she condemned the assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband back in June.

    Miller-Meeks claimed Kirk’s main goals in life were to have more debate and more discourse and to support free speech. However, she also said people have to be held accountable for their speech, particularly when it comes to celebrating political violence. She specifically mentioned the incident in Oskaloosa.

    According to local media reports, high school art teacher Matt Kargol posted the message “1 Nazi down” on his personal Facebook page after Kirk was killed. The post has since been deleted and the Oskaloosa superintendent recommended he be fired. Miller-Meeks said on Twitter/X that she was “disturbed” by the post.

    “Cheering political violence is always wrong and should never be done by those who educate our children,” Miller-Meeks said in the Twitter/X on Sept. 10, noting she reached out to the school district. “I will be contacting the superintendent and principal first thing in the morning to ensure this is addressed immediately.”

    The Oskaloosa School Board is scheduled to consider whether to terminate Kargol’s contract at its Sept. 17 meeting. Miller-Meeks told Republicans it is important for them to know their elected leaders want to “tamp down the rhetoric” and make sure people in positions of authority are “held to a higher standard.”

    At the trapshoot, Miller-Meeks provided party members with an update that was met with applause.

    “That individual has been terminated,” she said. “Now, of course, they’ll have due process, as they should. But at this point in time they’re recommending, well, they’re not terminating, but they recommend termination. But they went through the process. And that’s what we hope for everyone else.”

    Other employees across the United States are being reprimanded — or “canceled” — for similar remarks about Kirk’s death. Lawmakers in Iowa have called for the firing of university employees who celebrated Kirk’s death. Vice President J.D. Vance even encouraged people to contact employers.

    Free speech is a constitutional right of the United States of America, and it is protected under the First Amendment. However, some speech is not protected by the First Amendment, including incitement of imminent lawless actions, obscenity, defamation and true threats or fighting words.

    When it comes to school employees expressing themselves, oftentimes districts develop policies that limit or restrict speech.

    For instance, the Newton Community School District’s employee handbook says that teachers who use social media platforms are encouraged to remember the school community may not be able to separate employees as private citizens from their role within the district.

    The handbook goes on to say that if an employee’s expression on social media platforms interferes with the district’s operations or prevents the district or employee from functioning efficiently and effectively, they may be subject to discipline up to and including termination.

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  • Gov. Walz trashes Trump on shootings, national guard, economy

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    Minnesota Governor Tim Walz talks with Jen Psaki on the day that he had declared his candidacy for reelection. Walz offers harsh words on Donald Trump for his response to shootings in Minnesota, including the fatal shooting of Democratic politician Melissa Hortman, as well as the deployment of the National Guard to American cities, and Trump’s handling of the economic challenges Americans are facing.

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  • Democrat XP Lee wins Minnesota House special election to replace assassinated leader

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    Democrat Xp Lee won a special election Tuesday to fill the Minnesota House seat of a top Democratic leader who was assassinated.

    Rep. Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, held the seat until her death in June.

    Lee is a former Brooklyn Park City Council member. He defeated Republican real estate agent Ruth Bittner in the heavily Democratic district.

    Lee’s win restores a 67-67 tie in the House, and it preserves a power-sharing deal that existed for most of the 2025 legislative session, after the 2024 elections cost House Democrats their majority.

    Former House Speaker Hortman brokered that agreement, which ended Democrats’ three-week boycott. Under the deal, she agreed to end her six-year tenure as speaker and let Republican Lisa Demuth take the position. Hortman then took the title speaker emerita. Most legislative committees became evenly split between Republican and Democratic members, with co-chairs from each party.

    The tie in the House meant some level of bipartisan agreement was required to pass anything in this year’s session.

    In an indication of the national interest in the race, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said Lee’s “commitment to expanding access to education, affordable health care, and good-paying jobs honors the legacy” of Hortman.

    “Across Minnesota, our hearts are still broken by the horrific assassination that stole Melissa and her husband Mark,” Martin, who formerly chaired the state Democratic Party, said in a statement. “Political violence is a scourge that has taken far too many lives. Enough is enough. It must end now. And in every case, each of us has a responsibility to condemn and reject political violence wherever it rears its head.”

    The election to replace Hortman takes place about three months after she and her husband were gunned down in their home by a man impersonating a police officer in Brooklyn Park, a suburb northwest of Minneapolis. Another legislator and his wife also were shot but survived.

    Vance Boelter, 57, faces federal and state murder, attempted murder and other charges in the June 14 attacks.

    Tuesday’s special election also follows another act of political violence, the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah last Wednesday. The shootings have been a concern among voters in the district — and for both candidates.

    Lee said he wants to calm the “charged atmosphere” in the wake of Kirk’s death.

    Bittner said the violence briefly gave her pause about running for office, but she concluded that “there’s no way to solve this problem if we shrink back in fear.”

    Lee, a former Brooklyn Park City Council member, easily won a three-way Democratic primary in August. Bittner, a real estate agent, was the sole Republican on the primary ballot for the seat in the heavily Democratic district.

    Two more special elections will be held Nov. 4 in a pair of Minnesota Senate districts.

    One is to fill the seat vacated by Democratic Sen. Nicole Mitchell, of the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury. She resigned in July after she was convicted of burglarizing her estranged stepmother’s home. The other is for the seat of Republican Sen. Bruce Anderson, of the Minneapolis exurb of Buffalo, who died in July.

    Given that the districts are heavily Democratic and heavily Republican, respectively, control of the Senate isn’t expected to change. But the Democratic candidate for Mitchell’s seat is state Rep. Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger, of Woodbury. If she wins, the governor will have to call another special election to fill her House seat.

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  • Maddow Blog | ‘I’m not familiar’: Three months later, the White House struggles with Minnesota killings

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    Three months ago, a suspected gunman shot and killed Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in Minnesota. This came immediately after the same suspected shooter tried to kill state Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in the immediate aftermath of the attack that it appeared to be a “politically motivated assassination.”

    Republicans at the national level did not exactly respond to the tragedy in a responsible way. Despite that everything we now know about the alleged gunman suggests he was an anti-abortion Trump voter and not a far-left radical, several congressional Republicans labeled the suspect a “Marxist” whose alleged crimes constituted an example of “extreme left” violence.

    This was ridiculous. It was also, in retrospect, the opposite of how Democratic officials responded to the shooting that claimed Charlie Kirk’s life. It happened anyway — though the Republican response to the Minnesota shooting wasn’t perceived as a national scandal and no one was fired for having said dumb things about the shootings.

    In the aftermath of the political violence, Donald Trump said very little about what happened. Indeed, as my MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem explained, “He did not offer a substantial eulogy for her, or deliver an address on political violence, as he did after Kirk’s death. Unlike former President Joe Biden, Trump did not attend the funeral.”

    Three months later, a Fox News host characterized Hortman’s death as a “bulls—” example of political violence. Also on Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested that the suspect in Minnesota came from the left, not the right, despite all of the available evidence.

    And then, of course, there was the president himself.

    “In retrospect, given all of the moving ways that this White House has paid tribute to Charlie Kirk,” a reporter asked Trump, “do you think it would’ve been fitting to lower the flags to half-staff when Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota House speaker, was gunned down by an assassin as well?”

    The president replied, “I’m not familiar. The who?”

    Reminded of an incident he ought to have been familiar with, Trump said of lowering the flags, “Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would’ve done that. But the governor of Minnesota didn’t ask me.”

    For all of Trump’s comments in recent days about political violence, that he appeared to have no idea who Hortman was suggests the president hasn’t exactly done a full accounting of the broader national scourge.

    For that matter, leaders don’t generally wait to be asked to do the right and honorable thing.

    But let’s also not brush past the relevant details: In the aftermath of the political violence in Minnesota, Trump thought it’d be a good idea to lash out publicly at Walz — who might’ve requested lowering flags, but whom the president refused to contact.

    “Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue,” Trump said of Walz at the time. “He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call, but why waste time?”

    The Republican added, “I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I’m not calling him.”

    It’s worth appreciating the differences between the president’s reaction to Kirk’s death and how he responded to Hortman and her husband being killed.

    As Aleem concluded, “In a democracy, all political violence should be considered entirely unacceptable, no matter the ideology of the person committing the act or on the receiving end of it. Both the deaths of Hortman and Kirk were terrible tragedies and completely unjustifiable. But in his selective mourning and politicization of their deaths, Trump suggested one tragedy — more importantly, one type of tragedy — mattered more.”

    This article was originally published on MSNBC.com

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  • Trump at first says he is ‘not familiar’ with Minnesota Democrat’s assassination

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    In response to a question about why he did not order flags lowered to half-staff to honor Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives who was assassinated alongside her husband this summer, Donald Trump initially said he was “not familiar” with the case.

    The question came up during a briefing in the Oval Office on Monday, in light of the president’s order last week to lower flags in response to the killing of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk.

    Trump was pressed on why he and Republicans continued cast blame the left for a rise in political violence when elected officials and activists from both parties have been targets.

    Related: Iowa official defies governor’s order to fly flags at half-staff for Charlie Kirk

    The exchange began when the reporter asked about the tributes paid by the White House to Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist group Turning Point USA and a close ally of the president and his family.

    “Do you think it would have been fitting to lower the flags to half-staff when Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota house speaker, was gunned down by an assassin as well?” asked Nancy Cordes, the chief White House correspondent for CBS News.

    “I’m not familiar. The who?” Trump replied, leaning in across the Resolute Desk.

    “The Minnesota house speaker, a Democrat, who was assassinated this summer,” she said.

    “Oh,” Trump replied. “Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that.”

    Trump did not mention the Minnesota governor Tim Walz – a Democrat and the vice-presidential nominee in 2024 – by name, but suggested that had he made the request, the White House might have obliged.

    “I wouldn’t have thought of that, but I would’ve, if somebody had asked me,” Trump said. “People make requests for the lowering of the flag, and oftentimes you have to say no, because it would be a lot of lowering.”

    At the time, Trump said that speaking to Walz, a close friend of Hortman, would have been a “waste of time”.

    “I could be nice and call, but why waste time?” Trump said then, referring to Walz as “whacked out” and a “mess”.

    Kirk was fatally shot last week while speaking at Utah Valley University. In the wake of his death, Trump and other prominent conservatives have sought to place the blame for political violence squarely on Democrats, vowing to crack down on the left-wing groups and institutions they allege “fund it and support it”.

    As Republicans grieve the loss of Kirk, they have largely ignored the violence against Democrats, including Hortman’s assassination, the arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, the violent assault on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former speaker Nancy Pelosi, and a thwarted plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

    House Republicans and a handful of Democrats gathered at prayer vigil for Kirk on Capitol Hill on Monday. In brief remarks, Representative Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, reflected on several recent incidents of political violence, including Hortman’s killing by “another evil coward” who also shot a second Democratic state lawmaker that night.

    Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 presidential campaign, denied on Monday that he had blamed just “one side” before accusing the “radical left” of causing “tremendous violence”.

    “The radical left really has caused a lot of problems for this country,” he said. “I really think they hate our country.”

    Earlier on Monday, vice president JD Vance, a close friend of Kirk’s, said he hoped for national “unity” while hosting the slain activist’s podcast. But then he insisted that this was not a “both sides problem” and that Democrats were primarily to blame, despite widespread condemnation of Kirk’s killing by party officials and elected leaders.

    During the lengthy episode, Vance made no reference to Hortman or other acts of political violence, such as the 6 January assault on the US Capitol.

    “Something has gone very wrong with a lunatic fringe – a minority, but a growing and powerful minority on the far left,” he said, and committed to using the levers of the federal government to “dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country”.

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  • Senate panel hears testimony on assault weapons ban, other ideas for gun violence prevention

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    Students from St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists walk out to protest at the Minnesota State Capitol joining faith groups and gun control advocates in calling for a ban on assault weapons Friday, Sept. 5, 2025 following the mass shooting at Annunciation Church. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

    Lawmakers heard testimony from parents, first responders and faith leaders Monday as they considered a myriad of proposals to address gun violence in the aftermath of a shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis that left two children dead and more than 20 others injured. 

    Gov. Tim Walz said he will call a special session on gun violence this fall, and the Senate Gun Violence Prevention Working Group is evaluating which proposals could be viable in a divided Legislature. 

    An assault weapons ban — and any other law regulating firearms — is unlikely to pass, given Republicans’ temporary one-seat majority in the House, and dissent within the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party over gun control bills. The House is expected to return to a tie after a Sept. 16 special election in Brooklyn Park to fill the seat left vacant by the murder of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman. 

    The working group heard testimony from five parents of Annunciation students who were hurt in the shooting, and from doctors who treated the injured students, all in support of a bill that would ban civilian ownership of “semiautomatic military-style assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines — those that hold more than ten rounds. 

    “It is up to our lawmakers to decide which weapon our next mass shooter is armed with,” said Malia Kimbrell, the parent of a third-grade student at Annunciation who was injured in the shooting.

    Dr. Tim Kummer, medical director of community outreach for Hennepin EMS, responded to Annunciation in the minutes after the shooting. A 12-year-old girl had what appeared to be a small graze wound on her head — but below the surface, the bullet’s velocity created a shockwave, causing the child’s brain to bleed. Doctors had to remove a section of her skull. 

    “From a handgun, that wound would likely have only been a graze wound, but from a high powered rifle, it became a life threatening brain injury,” Kummer said. “Assault rifles turn survivable injuries into fatal ones.”

    The working group also heard proposals that would do the following:

    • Establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the Minnesota Department of Health.

    • Require gun buyers to complete a firearm safety course before purchasing a gun.

    • Create a public awareness campaign for Minnesota’s new “red flag” law, which allows judges to order the confiscation of weapons from a person deemed a danger to their own safety or others’. 

    • Create a Civil Commitment Coordinating Division within the Office of the Attorney General, tasked with streamlining the civil commitment process and collecting data on outcomes for those who are civilly committed. 

    • Require serial numbers on all firearms, including those that are 3-D printed or assembled at home. 

    • Allow local governments to ban firearms from city-owned or leased buildings. 

    • Require all gun owners to store their weapons unloaded and equipped with a locking device; or loaded or unloaded in a locked firearm storage unit or gun room.

    Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, did not attend the meeting but submitted a bill to increase penalties on people convicted of impersonating a law enforcement officer. A man impersonating a police officer shot Hoffman and his wife Yvette before murdering Hortman and her husband Mark in the early morning hours of June 14. 

    Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, submitted to the working group an article he co-authored in 2019 with a natural medicine doctor who spread false information about COVID-19 before dying of the virus in 2021. The article attributes the rise in mass shootings to the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs,  a common type of antidepressant. That claim has been repeated by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, but psychiatrists and other experts have debunked a causal link between SSRIs and violence.

    The working group will meet again Wednesday morning. 

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  • Minnesota House Democrats pick Hortman protégé Rep. Zack Stephenson as new leader

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    Rep. Zack Stephenson presents a bill that would address compensation for minors appearing in Internet content, to the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee in 2024. The bill passed and was signed into law. (Photo by Michele Jokinen/Session Daily)

    Minnesota House Democrats picked Rep. Zack Stephenson as their new caucus leader Monday, signaling a desire for continuity after the assassination of their late leader Melissa Hortman in June. 

    Stephenson, who has represented the Coon Rapids area in the House since 2019, was Hortman’s 2004 campaign manager as an inexperienced, early 20s college student. Hortman was a mentor to Stephenson for 20 years, teaching him about campaigning, fundraising and serving a Twin Cities metro swing district. Stephenson was also a good friend of Hortman’s and served as a pallbearer during her funeral.

    In a closed-door meeting, Stephenson garnered votes from the majority of the 66 House Democrats. The circumstances of Hortman’s death made choosing her successor challenging, but multiple contenders campaigned for it, including DFL floor leader Jamie Long and Reps. Tina Liebling, Dave Pinto and Cheryl Youakim.

    “I am honored to have the support of my colleagues to serve as caucus leader,” Stephenson said in a statement released by House DFL Monday. “Speaker Hortman is irreplaceable — as a leader, a strategist, a colleague and a friend. While I’ve been chosen to lead, it will take all of us, working together, to move forward, honor Speaker Hortman’s legacy, and build a Minnesota where everyone can succeed. We are all still grieving, but I am confident we can carry our shared work into the future.”

    Stephenson is likely to follow Hortman’s well-thumbed political playbook: raise money, recruit sound candidates and incessantly knock on doors.

    The House is expected to return to a 67-67 tie between Republicans and Democrats after a Sept. 16 special election to replace Hortman in a solidly blue suburban Brooklyn Park district. Stephenson will need to negotiate with Republicans to pass any legislation, deftly say “no” to unrealistic member demands of his own caucus and raise piles of money to campaign in 2026.

    If House Democrats take back control of the House next year, Stephenson will be a frontrunner for House speaker.

    Rep. Aisha Gomez, the co-chair of the House Taxes Committee and a leader of the left flank of the party, called Stephenson “smart, tough, capable, empathetic,” in a text message to the Reformer. “He studied at (Hortman’s) side and she trusted him completely. He wants to do right by her and by us and the people of our state. Our caucus is united behind him and collectively we have a lot of brilliance and heart to bring to the work ahead of us.”

    Stephenson served as a House Ways and Means committee co-chair this year, putting him at the center of budget negotiations with legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Walz. He’s also compiled a significant legislative resume, including authorship of the House bill legalizing cannabis in 2023 and a bevy of consumer protections enacted when he was chair of the Commerce Committee in 2023-24. 

    Stephenson is also a Hennepin County prosecutor. 

    Stephenson will have to hit the ground running: Walz said he will call a special session on gun control following the Aug. 27 mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, and Stephenson will need to work with House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican, to pass any sort of gun or school safety measures. 

    Hortman and her husband Mark were killed on June 14 in their Brooklyn Park home in a political assassination by a man who was targeting Democratic elected officials and abortion rights advocates, prosecutors say. Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were severely injured but survived a shooting by the same man, according to charging papers, at their Champlin home on the same night. 

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