Shootings of Minnesota lawmakers come amid national rise in political violence

The shootings of two state lawmakers by a suspect with a “manifesto” of other political targets was an unprecedented act in Minnesota history. But it also comes at a divisive, volatile moment in U.S. politics.

The assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and wounding of Sen. John Hoffman, both Democrats, follow other high-profile incidents of political violence across the country in recent years, both aimed at high-profile figures and community members. Violent rhetoric has ratcheted up and public officials say they have to hire more security because of the volume of threats.

Members of both political parties have been targets of violence, including the assassination attempts of President Donald Trump last year and the plot to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

In 2017, then-Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was shot during a congressional baseball practice. Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords survived an assassination attempt in 2011.

Reuters has been tracking incidents of political violence since Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and, as of last fall, had identified more than 300 cases — calling it the most sustained increase in political violence the country has seen since the 1970s.

A rise of targeted violence toward elected officials, public employees and the judiciary are among the signs of the time for the country, said Brian Levin, a professor emeritus and founding director of the Center for the Study for Hate and Extremism at California State University.

“We have seen increases virtually across the board, relating to public officials over the last half decade,” Levin said. “Moreover, within the realm of political violence, what we are seeing is these acts are often accompanied by political statements justifying the violence, which appears to be the case here.”

In everyday discourse, including online forums, there is an increasing acceptability of “eliminationist language,” Levin said, which is exacerbated by an online universe where “aggression produces clicks and engagement.”

This comes during a decline of community trust in institutions and the people who symbolize them, including state legislatures.

“This is part of a chain and part of this relates to how these extremists operate,” Levin said. “They may think globally, but oftentimes they act fairly locally.”

Minnesota officials have received occasional death or bomb threats, Secretary of State Steve Simon said. He noted a 2021 situation where the State Patrol evacuated Gov. Tim Walz’s son from the governor’s residence, and said the Secretary of State’s Office was evacuated last election season after receiving a suspicious package labeled as coming from the “traitor elimination army.”

But Simon, a Democrat, said he was shocked that such shootings happened here.

“We in Minnesota have always thought of ourselves as above this kind of thing. We think of ourselves as more civil, more civically engaged, and today this tragedy has punctured that view of ourselves,” he said.

Simon called political violence a “sickness” that he fears can be contagious. He urged people to resolve political differences peacefully and to understand that people you disagree with “are not mortal enemies.”

Along with elected officials, citizens, campaign staffers and election workers have been affected by political violence in recent years. A number of incidents occurred amid heightened political tensions in the lead-up to last year’s election and aftermath of Trump taking office.

In Minnesota, a man was charged with a felony for threats of violence after he said he would shoot people at a Rochester polling place last year.

In Arizona, a man was arrested after three shootings at a Democratic Party campaign office in the Phoenix area, which hit the office’s front door and window but did not injure anyone.

And this spring, an Albuquerque man firebombed the Republican Party of New Mexico’s headquarters and a Tesla showroom.

Family members of public figures are also becoming more frequent targets, said Peter Simi, a sociology professor at Chapman University and expert on political violence. He pointed to the case of federal Judge Esther Salas, whose son was killed in New Jersey in July 2020 by a man who posed as a pizza delivery driver.

“You’ll often see spouses and even children targeted,“ Simi said, adding that federal judges since January have been receiving threats in the form of pizza boxes sent to their homes.

A 2023 poll of nearly 300 former Congress members found almost half reported they or their family members received threats when they were in office. The poll, conducted by the University of Massachusetts with the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress, found that was substantially higher among people of color and women, of whom about 70% got such threats.

Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, said he’s witnessed a troubling trend toward violence and extreme rhetoric in political speech.

“We have a permission structure where you can say things that are horribly violent and then take them back,” said Putnam, a communications professor at St. John’s University in Collegeville. Pundits and politicians, he added with disbelief, then act surprised when “horrible things happen.”

Christopher Vondracek of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.