Watch: ‘To lose her is tragic’ – Minnesotans pay respects to Melissa Hortman
Many pointed out that Mrs Hortman was known for her ability to work with Republican colleagues, including recently to pass a state budget vote. On Monday local talk radio station WCCO replayed one of her last interviews, jointly done with Republican colleagues, where among other things they discussed what they might do if they spent some off time together.
The idea that this friendly state in the Upper Midwest could avoid the political rancour which is more frequently tipping over into violence elsewhere is an illusion, says Jenna Stocker, editor of Thinking Minnesota, a publication put out by the conservative think tank Center of the American Experiment.
The centre’s office was firebombed last year in what think tank officials called a politically motivated attack. Nobody has been charged with the crime.
“Some people even here in Minnesota have really let politics guide their thinking and how they feel about their neighbours, their friends and their relatives,” Ms Stocker says.
In extreme cases, that has led to extreme actions. Several recent studies indicate that political violence is growing across the US, reaching a level not seen since the 1970s.
Reuters has tallied more than 300 cases of politically motivated violence since the January 2021 Capitol riot. A 2023 study from the Brennan Center for Justice, a left-leaning institute, found that 40 percent of state legislators had experienced threats or attacks in the three years prior.
Despite widespread fears, fuelled in part by two assassination attempts against Donald Trump and the 2021 US Capitol riot, there was no large-scale violence around the time of the November 2024 presidential election.
But any supposed détente has been broken – several times over – since that vote.
In April the residence of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was set on fire. Politics appear to have motivated the alleged killers of a health-care executive in New York and two Israeli embassy employees in Washington.
In Washington, members of the US Congress were set to get emergency briefings about security this week.
Here in Minnesota, meanwhile, many people were lamenting what the attacks on the state’s politicians mean in a place that prides itself on its openness and ability to avoid the viciousness of national politics.
Despite the rawness of the recent attacks, inside the Capitol building there was little visible sign of heavy security – and no metal detectors – on Monday afternoon. Among the mourners, several of Hortman’s relatives laid flowers in front of the state House chamber, where a table was laden with bouquets and signs reading “Demand Change” and “Rest in Power”.
In between the news cameras and flowers, a group wandered around the building on a guided tour and legislative officials went about their work in an eerie hush.
But as people here mourned, nationally the partisan arguments continued.
President Trump on Tuesday said he wouldn’t be calling the state’s governor, Tim Walz – the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in last year’s election – calling him “a mess”.
“The guy doesn’t have a clue,” he told reporters.
In the wake of the attacks, several of Trump’s top supporters and allies – including Utah Senator Mike Lee, Elon Musk, conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer and activist Charlie Kirk – attempted without evidence to link Walz and Democratic lawmakers to the killings.
Lee wrote: “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way” while Musk reposted a message including a line about the attacks with the comment “The far left is murderously violent”.
Both men, who did not respond to requests for comment, appear to have been sucked in by conspiracy theories floating around online.
Many pointed to the fact that Walz and a previous Democratic governor had appointed the suspect to a position on a state economic board.
However, the suspect Mr Boelter was a supporter of President Trump who held conservative views, according to interviews with friends and neighbours. And according to evidence revealed by authorities, his long target list included Democratic and progressive lawmakers, and he had flyers with information about anti-Trump “No Kings” rallies which happened in St Paul and other cities around the country on Saturday.
Although the exact motive is still under investigation, evidence has indicated that the suspect was targeting the president’s opponents and left-wing and Democratic Party politicians.
