Melissa Hortman, shepherd of Legislature’s historic 2023 session, called House Democrats’ ‘captain’

Minnesota Democrats went on a winning streak in 2023, passing legislation to deliver universal free school meals to children, codify abortion rights and achieve generational environmental priorities.

Melissa Hortman was the force behind each of those victories, a shrewd legislative shepherd of progressive priorities with a quick wit and devotion to public service.

The murder of Hortman and her husband, Mark, early Saturday sent shockwaves across Minnesota.

“She is indisputably the most consequential and impactful speaker of the House in Minnesota history,” said former GOP Rep. Pat Garofalo of Farmington. “I say this as a Republican. And it’s not up for debate.”

But what Garofalo wanted to stress on Saturday, amid the anguish of the news that the lawmaker whom he’d worked with for 20 years was gone, was that her legacy will reach far beyond politics.

“Melissa Hortman is exactly the kind of person that Minnesotans want to have in elected office,” he said.

“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you agree or disagree with her, she’d always tell you where she stood and she had a great sense of humor.”

The details that emerged from a Saturday morning news conference were unfathomable: A gunman, disguised as a police officer, had appeared at Hortman’s home next to a Brooklyn Park golf course in the early morning hours and killed her and her husband.

On Saturday morning, Gov. Tim Walz’s voice cracked as he read out the disturbing details, noting the gunman had also made an attempt on the life of state Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat.

“Our state has lost a great leader, and I lost the dearest of friends,” Walz said.

That Hortman, a 55-year-old attorney, wife and suburban mother of two, was dead was head-spinning for statehouse political observers who portrayed her as in the prime of her career, wielding power and wrapping up a special session just days earlier.

For many lawmakers on Saturday, their memories of Hortman, with her signature blond hair and quick smirk, were her wit, charisma and candor.

Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, first met her a decade ago at a campaign event, where she jumped out to block an opposition campaign “tracker,” obscuring the stranger’s camera.

“She was so gregarious and funny and focused, and even telling me she didn’t want to do politics anymore but always wanted to be a teacher,” Putnam said.

Hortman volunteered at an elementary school and taught Sunday school at the Catholic church in Blaine.

Over the years, those who knew Hortman said she aspired to many jobs.

At age 10, she wanted to be the first female president. Instead, she’d settle for the second female speaker of the Minnesota House.

After graduating from Boston University and interning in Washington, D.C., for then-Sens. Al Gore and John Kerry, she earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota. As a legal aid attorney, she defended tenants and the marginalized.

“Melissa talked a lot about following the Golden Rule and the value that ‘to whom much is given, much is expected,’” the House DFL caucus said in a joint statement. “Generations of Minnesotans will be better off thanks to her leadership.”

Those close to her said Hortman was unflappable and had an unabashed tough streak. She was motivated to run in 1998 against an incumbent who’d sponsored a state version of the Defense of Marriage Act, which would have banned gay marriage in Minnesota.

In 2017, Hortman, by then the House minority leader, noticed male colleagues ignoring female lawmakers of color speaking on proposed penalties for protesting on public roads.

“I hate to break up the 100 percent white male card game in the retiring room,” Hortman said in a speech that went viral. “But I think this is an important debate.”

But there was a caring, apolitical gracefulness as well to Hortman, colleagues said. Garofalo said that in the days after the 2022 elections, when Democrats took control of state government by winning the governor’s office and both the House and Senate, he received a surprising call from his old friend.

“It was everything she’d worked for, 16-hour days,” he said. “And at the height of that euphoria on the political left, just a devastating night for me … out of the blue, she called me just to check in on her friend.”

The ensuing two years marked a string of victories for Hortman’s party. But the bitter election loss for Democrats in 2024 opened a new chapter.

After losing the House and weeks of boycotting the start of the 2025 legislative session, Hortman inked a power-sharing agreement and handed the gavel to the new Republican House speaker, Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring.

On Saturday, Demuth said in a statement that she was devastated by the news of Hortman’s killing. She said the two battled fiercely but never let it affect their “personal bond.”

“We worked together for the last several years to build a strong relationship based on our shared values and our commitment to making our state better,” Demuth said

With the state facing a mounting budget deficit and a razor-sharp divide, the 2025 legislative session ended in acrimony as Hortman agreed to a provision in the state budget deal that inflamed the DFL’s liberal wing: stripping newly-earned health care from Minnesota’s adult undocumented immigrants.

Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega said the vote roiled colleagues. But the St. Paul DFLer said that in the tough, doubt-filled moments after the deal was announced, she remembered Hortman’s outreach to her.

“She told me that was the hardest vote that she’d ever had to take,” said Pérez-Vega, noting Hortman’s strength as a strategist. “And she said we would come back [into the majority].”

On Saturday morning, as she reeled through emotions, a tearful Pérez-Vega said she was devastated.

“Melissa … was like a captain of a team," she said.

Hortman, in many ways, fit the profile of a stereotypical Minnesotan. She loved Golden Retrievers, enjoyed summers with her husband and kids, and didn’t mind fighting for what she believed in.

She held political fundraisers at her home on the golf course, the same one a gunman approached in the dark of the early morning hours of Saturday.

Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said he’d attended many fundraisers at the home and remembered her husband, Mark. He said he was quiet but ever-proud and supportive, a modern-day Minnesota husband in a land of strong women.

“The thing that got me this morning was just [seeing a photo of] her on that back porch with her dog,” said Petersen.

For a down-to-earth political professional, he said, she was happiest with her family at home.