Minnesota Reels from Political Assassinations

Memorial to Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, and her husband Mark Hortman.

Saturday, June 14 was a grim day for Minnesotans. Many woke to hear that an assassin had shot Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman at their house in Champlin and then Speaker Emerita Melissa and her husband Mark Hortman at their house in Brooklyn Park. We found out an hour or two later that the Hoffmans had survived the shooting, but the Hortmans had not. A huge police manhunt followed, and Vance Boelter was arrested Sunday night. He appears to have acted alone.

There’s been plenty of news coverage on these crimes and we won’t repeat that here. We want to remember and honor the victims. Speaker Hortman dedicated her life to making Minnesota a better place for all of us. Many of us at the DFLs of Olmsted County knew Melissa Hortman from her selfless work on the campaign trail here in Southern Minnesota. She spent years building up our local legislative delegation and eventually delivered a DFL trifecta for Minnesota. With the trifecta, Speaker Hortman wasted no time in orchestrating the most effective legislative session Minnesota has ever seen. She delivered on DFL promises that benefited every Minnesotan from Paid Family and Medical Leave to Restorative Justice to major investments for our youth.

Melissa Hortman was elected to the Minnesota House in 2004 on her third try for the seat. She succeeded Paul Thissen as Minority Leader for the DFL House Caucus in 2017. When the DFL won back the majority in 2018, she was elected Speaker when the House convened in 2019. She would be speaker for the next three legislative cycles and was in charge of the House during the amazing 2023-24 legislative session where so many DFL initiatives were enacted into law. This year, with the House tied 67-67, she, as the leader of the DFL caucus, volunteered to let Lisa Demuth, the leader of the Republican House Caucus, to become Speaker in exchange for a power-sharing agreement that would protect the seat of a DFL member that the Republicans were threatening to unseat. She led negotiations with Republicans over bills that needed high-level agreement. This included dealing with Republicans’ insistence on removing public insurance coverage from adult undocumented immigrants without which they would let parts of the Minnesota government shut down. When that became part of the final agreement for the special session, she agreed to be the one DFL vote needed to pass that bill.

Hortman was the longest-serving leader of the DFL House Caucus in its 81-year history. She and her husband leave an adult son and daughter. Their son lives in Rochester.

John Hoffman was elected to the Senate in 2012 and has been a strong advocate for the disabled in his thirteen years in office. He has chaired the Human Services Committee since 2023. At the time of this writing, we await Senator Hoffman’s release from hospital care as he is still recovering from his significant injuries. His wife, Yvette Hoffman, was critically injured, but has been released from the hospital. We are all so very grateful that they survived this attack.

Political assassination has not been common in Minnesota, so this has sent a shockwave through our community. Attacks like last week’s cannot happen again.

MAY DAY and NO KINGS Protests Draw Big Crowds

There have been two large national mobilization events in Rochester since our last newsletter. The first was May 1. Over 500 people came to Soldier Field Park to hear speakers representing unions and the needs of the working class and march downtown. The second took place at Mayo Memorial Park on June 14, which had been designated as No Kings Day. This was a protest of many of the Trump administration’s policies and was scheduled for the day of the military parade in Washington, D.C. (and Trump’s birthday). It drew 3000 people from Rochester and the surrounding area. Nationwide, the turnouts were staggering and in stark contrast to the poorly attended parade in D.C. The news of Melissa and Mark Hortman’s death and the hospitalizations of John and Yvette Hoffman came just as protestors were arriving. A tearful moment of silence was observed before CD1 candidate Jake Johnson took the stage to offer a sharp rebuke of the political violence and untenable climate of our nation. Following the rally, the attendees marched to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park to kick off the NAACP’s Juneteenth celebration that afternoon. The march stretched the entire 2.7 mile length of the route. It was a remarkable turnout - representing the overwhelming opposition to the actions of the current administration. See https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/photos-no-kings-protest-on-june-14-2025 for photos.

Weekly protests will continue. Another large demonstration is being planned for July. Check out Activism Roundup for the latest news and opportunities to get involved in the fight for our democracy.

DFL Chair Brought Listening Tour to Rochester

Richard Carlbom, the Minnesota DFL Chair, came to Rochester May 22 as part of his state-wide listening tour. Carlbom was elected Chair on March 31, replacing Ken Martin who had been the DFL chair since 2011. He has been going to both red and blue areas to listen to DFLers to help him set his priorities for his chairmanship. When he came to the IBEW Local 343 Hall on the 22nd, he asked the 100 people there what they worried about and what made them hopeful. He also answered questions from the audience about what he planned to do as chair.

Summarizing the 2025 Session of the Minnesota Legislature

The Minnesota Legislature passed several of the budget bills needed to fund Minnesota government beyond July 1 in May, but there were many budget bills that didn’t get through before the Legislature had to adjourn its regular session on May 19. This made a special session inevitable to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of June. The conference committees that had been negotiating compromises between House and Senate bills during the session morphed into work groups that kept on negotiating. After two weeks, agreements were reached on the remaining budget bills along with a tax bill and a bonding bill. As a result, Governor Walz called a special session for June 9. Legislative leaders promised the session would only take one day and they delivered on that promise, so with all budget bills passed, the government will stay open.

The 2025 session was not as good for DFL priorities as the 2023-24 sessions had been, when there was a DFL trifecta. The House had a Republican plurality for two months and was tied after that, so no bills could pass without bipartisan support. The Senate was tied for the first two weeks before going back to a one-vote DFL majority for most of the session. Further, the budgetary situation was far worse than two years earlier. While a small surplus was projected for the 2025-27 biennium, a multi-billion dollar deficit was projected for its 2027-29 successor.

Despite these setbacks, many of the gains made in the last few years were preserved. For example, free school lunches will continue and the paid family and medical leave program will start in 2026. Unfortunately, the Republicans’ highest priority was to take away health coverage from undocumented immigrants and they were willing to shut down the government to get that. As a result, DFL leaders agreed to cut coverage under Medicaid or MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrants who are adults, while preserving coverage for those under 21. Other adjustments were made to reduce the rate of increases in human services expenses, something initiated by the Walz administration. Most parts of the government received minimal or no increases, so their funding will not keep up with inflation.

The Legislature is now adjourned until February 17, 2026, though another special session may be needed if there are substantial Federal cuts to Medicaid or other programs that the state will have to deal with.

2026 Caucuses: Here Sooner Than You Think!

Minnesota’s precinct caucuses will be at 7 PM Tuesday, February 3, 2026. Olmsted 20/24 DFL plans to hold all its caucuses at the same location again, though that could either be at Mayo High School or John Marshall High School. Locations and rooms will be announced by the end of October. As usual, caucuses will pick DFL precinct or township officers, vote on resolutions, and choose delegates to the organizing and endorsing conventions.

We expect a higher turnout for caucuses than we had in 2024, in part because there is a contest for the endorsement in the U.S. Senate race, but also because of increased political activity with Trump in the White House. Should Governor Walz choose not to run for re-election, turnout could be as high as it was in 2018, the highest turnout in a non-presidential year in decades. We’ll need volunteers to convene precinct or township caucuses (and will train volunteers how to do that) and to help in general with arranging and running the caucuses. We will put out a request for volunteers in the fall.

The two DFL organizing units in Olmsted County plan to have their conventions on the same day in one of the Rochester high schools as we usually do. The state DFL will determine later this summer when these conventions can occur, but they typically are toward the end of March or the beginning of April.

Senate District 20 and 24 DFLs will have separate conventions in the late winter or early spring to endorse their candidates for Minnesota Senate and House. People elected from Olmsted 20/24 DFL precinct caucuses to be delegates to the organizing unit conventions will also be delegates to their Senate District conventions. The dates and locations of those conventions will be announced in the fall.

Who is Running in 2026 Around Here?

Listed below are those who are seeking the DFL endorsement. Governor Walz has not yet said whether he is running for re-election. It’s likely that most other constitutional officers (Attorney General Keith Ellison, Auditor Julie Blaha, and Secretary of State Steve Simon) are waiting for that decision before they make their decisions on running for re-election.

U.S. Senate (to replace Senator Tina Smith):
Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan (peggyflanagan.com)
Representative Angie Craig (angiecraig.com)

U.S. Representative, 1st District: Jake Johnson (jakejohnsonforcongress.com)

Minnesota Senator, District 24: Simon Glaser (simonglaser.com)

Minnesota House, District 20B: Michael Hutchinson (vote4hutch.com)

Minnesota House, District 24A: Heather Holmes (heatherholmes4mnhouse.com)

Minnesota House, District 24B: Tina Liebling (tinaliebling.com)

These candidates need your help to win these seats - check out a campaign and volunteer!

DFL SUMMER EVENTS

Olmsted 20/24 DFL will be involved with a lot of events this summer. Here’s a list:

Saturday, June 28 | 2:00 PM | Rochester Grand Parade Rochester

Friday, July 4 | 6:30 PM | Stewartville Summerfest Grand Parade Stewartville*
*This is not an Olmsted 20/24 DFL event. The Jake Johnson for Congress campaign is entering a float in this parade.

Saturday, July 19 |11:00 AM | Eyota Days Grand Parade Eyota

Sunday, July 20 | 2:00 PM | Byron Good Neighbor Days Grand Parade Byron

Tuesday, July 22-Sunday, July 27 Olmsted County Free Fair Graham Park, Rochester
The DFL has a booth at the fair that will be open from 11 AM-9 PM 7/22-7/26 and 11 AM-4 PM 11/27

Saturday, August 10 Chatfield Western Days Grand Parade Chatfield

Check our website (olmsted2024dfl.com) for the Activism Roundup, which will have details for these parades and the fair as we get them. We need volunteers to staff our fair booth. Volunteer for a slot via our Sign-Up Genius available HERE. We welcome marchers at all the parades, and we will provide signs representing positive DFL accomplishments and our values as well as campaign signs. Follow us on social media for reminders of these events. You can sign up for these via Mobilize.

FDR Dinner

The 2025 FDR Dinner, the principal fundraiser for Olmsted 20/24 and Senate District 25 DFLs, will be held on Sunday, October 5 from 4 - 8 PM. The Vikings are playing in London that morning and the Packers and Bears aren’t playing that day, so you have every reason to spend your Sunday with fellow DFLers in support of the local organizing units and candidates. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon will be the keynote speaker. We have invited both U.S. Senate candidates, both U.S. senators and Governor Walz, along with DFL party leaders. We will hear from our Congressional District 1 candidate and state legislative candidates.

Because we were running out of space at the Graham Park/Aune Hall, this year’s event will be at the Empire Event Center (1517 16th St, SW, Rochester). Ticket prices and how to purchase tickets will be announced soon. A separately ticketed VIP Reception is also planned. We look forward to being together and thank you for your support.

May/June 2025 Newsletter