The political violence that shook Minnesota’s Legislature was front and center at a national conference of lawmakers Monday, where a state senator shot at his home in June urged lawmakers to dial back rhetoric that can fuel violence.
Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman, who is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds, spoke via video to the National Conference of State Legislatures conference in Boston. More than 50 lawmakers and staff from Minnesota were in attendance.
Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, and House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, also addressed the gathering. They reflected on the June 14 shootings that injured Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and killed DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.
In his widest public comments since the shooting, Hoffman said the nation was experiencing a “creeping erosion of public trust, not just in institutions, but in each other.”
“What happened in Minnesota on June 14 was awful and tragic and will impact me and my family forever,” Hoffman said. “But as a Minnesotan and as an American, I do know this, we can’t let the evil of the night win and we must redouble our efforts and reclaim the reason we are all public servants.”
Murphy remembered Hortman as a hard worker who was unassuming and kind. She said legislators across the country need to recognize how sharp rhetoric can inspire dire acts.
“I’ve heard many suggest that in response to the evil that visited us we should turn down the vitriol in our rhetoric,” Murphy said. “I think a lot of America would appreciate that. I know Melissa would.”
Murphy went on, “But as public leaders we need to go deeper to understand how persistent, dehumanizing narratives and conspiracy theories in public discourse are serving movements and fueling the radicalization of individuals.”
Murphy noted that dozens of other DFL lawmakers and abortion providers were named on a list found in the vehicle of Hortman’s alleged assailant. Authorities say the man facing multiple state and federal charges visited the homes of at least four lawmakers that night.
Demuth, who worked closely with Hortman in recent years, echoed the calls for more civil discourse in politics.
“Right now, we’re living in a political environment where division, cynicism and soundbites are the order of the day. In my time serving with Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, she showed me a different way to lead. Melissa embodied an entirely different political reality — that respect, even across deep ideological divides, still matters,” Demuth said.
She asked the room full of elected officials to work to disagree without being disagreeable as Hortman did.
“In our grief, I hope everyone in political leadership moving forward — everyone elected to serve their communities in any way — will commit to a better kind of politics, rooted in respect and modeled by my friend Melissa Hortman,” Demuth said.