[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 17, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3443-S3444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REMEMBERING MELISSA AND MARK HORTMAN

  Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, many thanks to my colleague Senator 
Klobuchar for her heartfelt words.
  I rise today because my friend Melissa Hortman, speaker emerita of 
the Minnesota State House, incredible person and strong leader, was 
shot and killed Saturday morning, along with her husband Mark, in a 
tragic, politically motivated attack.
  State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were also shot a total 
of 17 times, and Yvette--incredibly and selflessly--used her own body 
to shield their daughter from the attacker. I thank God that they are 
expected to recover.
  I am filled with gratitude for the State and local and Federal law 
enforcement that marshaled all of their resources to keep Minnesota 
safe after this horrendous attack and to mount the largest manhunt in 
the history of our State to capture this shooter late on Sunday 
evening.
  This was an unspeakable act of political violence, an attack on our 
democracy, as well as a personal tragedy.
  There will be a time and a place to discuss the evilness of Speaker 
Emerita Hortman's assassination, the forces that drove her assassin to 
violence, and how we as leaders must rise to this moment and speak with 
one voice to condemn violent political attacks; but, today, I want my 
colleagues and America and everybody back home in Minnesota to know the 
kind of person and leader that Melissa was, and I want to think 
especially of Colin and Sophie, who have lost their parents, their mom 
and dad, and understand that they will not be forgotten by me or 
Senator Klobuchar or many, many thousands of people.
  I hope that everyone will be able to understand a little bit more 
keenly the depth of our grief, the human cost to the loss of Melissa 
and Mark's family, their friends, their community, and to Minnesota and 
our Nation.
  So I don't know about you, but I need a little inspiration right now, 
and Melissa was inspirational.
  The first thing you need to know about Melissa is that she was a 
middle-class girl from the north metro of the Twin Cities. She was 
funny, she was straightforward, and she was kind. She was smart and 
driven and determined, and she did well because she worked hard at 
everything she did--from her first job making burritos to her last job 
leading her caucus through a deeply divided legislative session. 
Nothing was handed to her, and she earned it through her work. That is 
the inspiration of the American dream.
  The second thing that I want you to know about Melissa is that she 
believed and acted on one of our most American of values: the 
conviction that we all have a responsibility to one another. We have a 
responsibility to contribute to our communities, and we have this 
unshakable belief that our country is great because we feel that 
conviction and that obligation to one another.
  Service to and respect for others was the guiding principle in 
Melissa's life.
  Over the last few days, there have been so many beautiful tributes 
written to Melissa's life and work. I see a common thread in all of 
these remembrances--that even in the rough business of politics, she 
was someone who never lost focus on our shared humanity, those shared 
values, and that shared goal that we should all have in public service, 
which is improving life for Americans. Her gift for focusing on our 
shared humanity helped her not only to earn the deep loyalty of the 
members of her own caucus but also the trust and respect of Republicans 
on the other side of the aisle.
  Current house speaker Republican Lisa Demuth recently recalled how 
Melissa reached out to her at the start of Lisa's leadership--Melissa 
was the speaker of the house, and Lisa was coming into leadership--and 
how she came to view Melissa as a mentor to her leadership. Many 
disagreements on policy, but Melissa was a mentor to her because she 
brought such clarity and honesty and compassion to their working 
relationship.
  Former senate majority leader Republican Paul Gazelka reflected on 
his years of working closely with Melissa. He noted that they had built 
a ``deep trust'' with one another because of her honesty, because of 
her even-keeled temperament, even though she was a very tough 
negotiator.
  He remembered their moment of human connection as they shared a hug 
after the passage of a landmark public safety bill in the aftermath of 
the murder of George Floyd. That hug was in recognition of how they had 
worked so hard, coming from different places in such a difficult moment 
for Minnesota.
  Melissa always approached her work by leading with compassion and 
respect for our shared humanity, and, of course, she was unafraid to 
demand that respect in return both for herself and others. I mean, she 
was fearless.
  One of the most famous anecdotes of her speakership is--Amy was 
referring to this--one night--it was a long night; colleagues in this 
room can relate to it--it was a long night. The debate was going on and 
on. But there were members of the house that were making important 
speeches, making personal speeches about the impact of the bill that 
would have increased criminal penalties on certain protests.
  Meanwhile, there was a group of male legislators in the back room 
that were playing cards. Melissa called them out on this, and these 
legislators--unaccustomed, I think, to being confronted with their rude 
behavior--expressed their indignation. Melissa's response

[[Page S3444]]

was pretty simple. She said: You know, I am really tired of watching 
women and especially women of color being ignored. She said: ``So I'm 
not sorry.''
  Mr. President, I have to tell you that ``sorry, not sorry'' became a 
little bit of a rallying cry around the Minnesota State Capitol after 
that and is something we all remember Melissa for.
  She lived her values, and she knew how to stand up for others and 
insisted that we all treat one another with dignity and respect as we 
undertake the serious work of public service, even in a political 
climate that too often rewards meanness and sort of a dehumanizing of 
one another.
  Here is the third thing I want everyone to know about Melissa 
Hortman: She was a formidable legislator.
  Melissa's tenure of public service began long before her election to 
the Minnesota Legislature. She was an intern in this very body for 
then-Senators Al Gore and John Kerry. After law school, she served as a 
clerk in our State's court system and then as an assistant Hennepin 
County attorney.
  She first rose to prominence after winning a housing discrimination 
case as a legal aid attorney. What she won for her client was at the 
time the largest civil award in Minnesota history for housing 
discrimination--and she was 27 years old.
  She volunteered on campaigns and ran for office twice, losing before 
she won and came to the Minnesota Legislature. She was tenacious.
  Once elected, her talent was immediately obvious to her caucus. By 
her second term, she was already mounting and growing in leadership. By 
the time she was elected speaker, she had a remarkable record as a 
negotiator, an honest broker, someone who was true to her principles 
even when she had to make tough choices.
  Melissa's leadership during the 2023 legislative session of the 
Minnesota Legislature was nothing short of historic. Much has been 
written about the great accomplishments of this legislative session in 
Minnesota, but I think an underappreciated part of this was that this 
remarkable session didn't just happen in one short period; it happened 
because of years and years and years of work by legislators and 
organizers and activists building support of consensus, and Melissa was 
a part of that work from the very beginning.
  The success of that legislature and that legislative session came 
because of her ability to see an opportunity and to meet the moment and 
meet it with deftness and courage, and the result has been 
transformational to Minnesota.

  She always believed that you can make a difference for people if you 
work at it, and she did. Because of her leadership, more than 13\1/2\ 
million more Minnesota students get a healthy and free breakfast and 
lunch in 2024. Minnesota is on track to eliminate all lead water 
service lines by 2033 thanks to Melissa. More than 65,000 Minnesotans 
were automatically registered to vote. Minnesota, of course, is the 
State--we are very proud of this--with the second highest voter turnout 
in the 2024 Presidential election and the highest youth voter turnout 
by far.
  Starting next year, working Minnesotans who are starting or growing 
or caring for their families will have access to paid leave thanks to 
Melissa.
  In short, millions--millions--of Minnesotans are better off because 
of the work that she did. Her record of accomplishment is so extensive, 
it is hard to capture it all in just a few short minutes. It is so 
bitter to realize that she was only 55. She had so many more 
contributions to make, so much--as Melissa would say: Don't get carried 
away. I was just going to do my work. I was going to work as hard as I 
could.
  It is bitter for us that her life was taken in this way, and it will 
now be up to all of us to carry on these fights. I will miss her 
leadership and her friendship as our State navigates these uncertain 
times.
  Mr. President, I look around this Senate Chamber, and I see 
legislators who, like Melissa, understand that the job of a legislature 
and a legislator is to help fix things, not just talk about fixing 
things, to lift up people who need help, to build opportunity, and to 
use the power of our connections to one another to build a better, 
stronger, more fair community.
  I hope my colleagues will take heart and inspiration from Melissa's 
example and rededicate ourselves to what it means to be a legislator, 
working across lines of difference to solve problems for the people who 
sent us here.
  I want to close with a suggestion from Melissa and Mark's beloved 
children Sophie and Colin to all of us in Minnesota just yesterday. It 
is in the spirit of Melissa's directness and down-to-earthness.
  She said:

       If you would like to honor the memory of Mark and Melissa, 
     please consider the following: Plant a tree. Visit a local 
     park and make use of the amenities, especially a bike trail. 
     Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do. Tell 
     your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it. Bake 
     something--bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa--and share it 
     with someone. Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something. 
     Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is 
     justice and peace.

  May the memory of Melissa and Mark be a blessing to all who knew and 
loved them. May John and Yvette have a speedy recovery. And may we all 
find a way to recover and be better after these terrible attacks.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.

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