Sen. Klobuchar Dined With Assassinated Minn. Dem Hours Before Death

Trag­ic Assas­si­na­tion of For­mer Min­neso­ta House Speak­er Melis­sa Hort­man Sparks Nation­al Con­cern Over Polit­i­cal Vio­lence

For­mer Min­neso­ta House Speak­er Melis­sa Hort­man and her hus­band, Mark, were fatal­ly shot in their Brook­lyn Park home near Min­neapo­lis on Sat­ur­day in what author­i­ties are call­ing a polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed assas­si­na­tion. Hours ear­li­er, Hort­man had shared a meal with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who recalled her long­time col­league as a no-non­sense leader with humor and heart. Klobuchar was informed of the tragedy ear­ly Sat­ur­day by Gov­er­nor Tim Walz and lat­er reflect­ed on Hortman’s lead­er­ship style, work eth­ic, and inclu­sive approach dur­ing her years as Speak­er from 2019 to ear­ly 2025.

The alleged killer, 57-year-old Vance Boel­ter, report­ed­ly dis­guised him­self as a police offi­cer to car­ry out the attack. He also left behind a man­i­festo list­ing 70 polit­i­cal fig­ures, includ­ing Walz, Lt. Gov. Peg­gy Flana­gan, and sev­er­al con­gres­sion­al mem­bers. Boelter—who was pre­vi­ous­ly appoint­ed by Walz to a state board—was cap­tured after a two-day man­hunt. He is also accused of shoot­ing State Sen. John Hoff­man and his wife, Yvette, on the same evening; both sur­vived.

The attack has height­ened con­cerns about the surge in polit­i­cal­ly fueled vio­lence. Klobuchar and oth­er law­mak­ers, includ­ing Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer, are urg­ing for greater secu­ri­ty mea­sures, espe­cial­ly for those recent­ly named as poten­tial tar­gets. Klobuchar warned on CNN that polit­i­cal threats have soared—from 1,700 in 2016 to over 9,000 in 2023—and called for action to safe­guard democ­ra­cy: “I hope good peo­ple still run, or our democ­ra­cy won’t stand.”