Slain Minnesota lawmaker was keynote speak at 2023 Iowa Democratic Wing Ding in Clear Lake

BROOKLYN PARK, MINNESOTA — The Midwest was shocked over the weekend after the news that the former Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband were fatally shot in their home in Brooklyn Park while another state lawmaker, Senator John Hoffman and his wife were shot multiple times at their home in nearby Champlin.

Hortman was the keynote speaker at the 2023 Iowa Democratic Wing Ding in Clear Lake. She told the crowd about how important it was to communicate with the public.  “The voters hold in their hands the power to choose what kind of a future we’ll have, and so there remains nothing more important to do than to talk to voters to make sure they understand that power and to persuade them to use it to elect folks who will give our families, our friends and our communities the future they deserve.”

Hortman and the rest of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party battled for years to pass their agenda as they had to contend with a split legislature, but continued to communicate with people on what they wanted from lawmakers.  “What they were really clear to us about is that they wanted a state that worked better, but not just for themselves, for their neighbors. It kind of doesn’t surprise you, a lot of the things they told us are common sense, but some of us, why do we go to church, we go to church to hear the things we already know, it’s good to hear them again, but what was important was to hear those things in the way the people expressed them to us.”

The Minnesota state senator and his wife who were shot early Saturday morning in their home have connections to Iowa. Senator John Hoffman worked for Polk County and the State of Iowa from 1991 to 2001. His wife Yvette worked at a Des Moines radio station co-hosting a morning show in the 1990s when they met at a political fundraiser with shared friends.

The suspect in the shooting, Vance Boelter, was arrested on Sunday evening in a rural area of Sibley County, southwest of the Twin Cities.