After violent attacks, politicians struggle to balance security and accessibility

State legislators bought home monitoring systems. Congress members hired security agents. Political groups encouraged candidates to create safety plans. Cities tightened security in council chambers.

Security has been a growing priority at all levels of government in recent years as elected officials have faced more threats and harassment, and changes to campaign finance laws have led candidates to spend far more to keep themselves safe.

That trend is likely to intensify — around the country and in Minnesota — after the shootings of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and Sen. John Hoffman.

The unprecedented violence has also left elected officials grappling with how to balance personal protections with staying connected to their communities. Every incremental security move that distances lawmakers from constituents “chips away at their value of being accessible,” said Tim Storey, CEO of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“They hold coffees. They walk the street parades. When constituents come to the Capitol and want to meet with them, man, they meet with them,” he said. “They don’t put 10 layers of staff between them and the people in their district.”

Changes to campaign spending rules in Minnesota and Congress have allowed politicians to use more money for security in recent years.

Last year, the Federal Election Commission clarified that candidates and officeholders can use campaign funds for security measures such as alarm systems and security personnel. Previously, some campaigns had been able to put dollars toward security, but the FEC allowed it only on a case-by-case basis.

The amount of money federal candidates, including those in Minnesota, have spent on security has grown significantly since a decade ago, according to an analysis by OpenSecrets, which tracks money in U.S. politics. “This has clearly been a feature of campaigns for a while,” said Andrew Mayersohn, OpenSecrets’ committees researcher. “Certainly 2024 was higher than in previous cycles.”

During the 2024 election cycle, Minnesota candidates for Congress spent at least $230,000 on security, according to Mayersohn’s data, which uses search terms to find security spending in campaign reports and may undercount actual spending. According to recent filings, members of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation spent campaign funds on event security as well as on companies like ADT that provide home and office security.

The state of Minnesota also altered its rules in 2021 to allow campaign dollars to pay for security for candidates seeking state office. Campaign committees can provide up to $3,000 over an election cycle for monitoring expenses for a candidate, including home security hardware and identity theft and credit monitoring services.

Candidate committees in Minnesota spent a total of more than $20,000 on security over the past couple of years and more than $30,000 in the prior election cycle, compared with a few thousand dollars in prior election cycles, a Minnesota Star Tribune analysis of state campaign finance data found.

Attorney General Keith Ellison’s campaign spent the most among state officeholders, largely during the 2022 election cycle. Ellison often held town halls, meet-and-greets and other events around the state and has retained private security when needed, said campaign spokesman Brian Evans.

“It is unfortunate that today’s climate of toxic political rhetoric and rampant misinformation has made this an occasional necessity,” Evans said in a statement. “However, that will not change Attorney General Ellison’s commitment to being a leader that listens to and engages with the people he serves.”

Some Minnesota politicians and staffers said there will likely be conversations in the months ahead about whether lawmakers should have to lean on campaign funds for security, or if funding should also come from other sources.

State Sen. Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, who has spent thousands in campaign funds on home security, said he pushed to allow campaign funds to be used for security expenses years ago, and he encourages candidates and legislators to use those resources.

“In the wake of such a heartbreaking and deeply unsettling tragedy, it’s only natural that we begin asking what could have been done differently and how we can better prepare going forward,” Lucero said in a statement.

Safety and family are the first topics that come up when Nevada Littlewolf recruits women to run for public office in Minnesota. The executive director of Women Winning, which aims to elect women who support abortion rights, dealt with threats when she was on the Virginia, Minn., City Council.

Strong relationships with her police department and neighbors were important, she said, and she talked with her kids about steps to stay safe.

VoteRunLead, which trains women across the U.S. to run for office, has been urging people to create safety plans after the shootings in Minnesota. Their guide for such plans includes suggestions like assembling an emergency contact list, packing a “go bag,” having an exit strategy at home and knowing entrance and exit locations at event venues.

More politicians will likely avoid bringing family to campaign events and posting photos of their kids online, VoteRunLead CEO and Founder Erin Vilardi said, predicting that people will draw a line where “you have access to me, as your leader, but you don’t have access to my whole life and you don’t have access to my family.”

State Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, spent a few thousand in campaign funds on home security after receiving some “really nasty threats” a couple years ago. Putnam, whose wife is also a public figure as a school superintendent, noted that Minnesota legislators from outside the Twin Cities who travel to St. Paul during the session leave their family members alone for days at a time.

Lawmakers’ addresses were quickly removed from state websites in the aftermath of the shootings, and there are ongoing conversations about how to handle such information, as well as discussions about expanding security measures at the State Capitol, which does not currently have metal detectors or bag checks.

Putnam, who held a town hall with constituents this week, called himself a “very public dude,” and said he’d rather add security and have his address known. “The job requires accessibility; that’s its core component,” he said.

State Sen. Zach Duckworth, R-Lakeville, said he made home security changes after the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City. But with four young kids and a wife, he said the assassination of the Hortmans forced him to think more deeply about the balance between accessibility and safety.

“I feel an immense obligation and duty to be accessible to the public, to do the work that’s important to do,” said Duckworth, a co-chair of the Legislature’s Civility Caucus, which works to build bipartisan trust and understanding. He said he wants to hear from people who do — and who don’t — agree with him.

“I don’t want to see that be sacrificed or fall by the wayside because of a new level of fear, no matter how justified, entering into how we conduct business,” Duckworth said.

Greta Kaul and Reid Forgrave of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.