[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 99 (Thursday, June 11, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2745-S2747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Remembering Melissa and Mark Hortman

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague from 
Minnesota Senator Smith on a somber anniversary week for our State and 
for our country.
  One year ago, a horrific act of political violence took two 
Minnesotans from us who represented the best of our State, the best of 
us, Minnesota State Representative and our former Speaker of the House 
Melissa Hortman and her dear husband Mark Hortman.
  This is them with their kids, with Colin and Sophie who have been 
true to their memories since that date, grieving through the entire 
time, but always holding up their parents' memories.
  That same night, State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were 
also shot. Despite taking nine bullets, as his wife Yvette took eight, 
John has courageously returned to the State senate with a tireless 
dedication to improving the lives of Minnesotans.
  Melissa and Mark left behind a State in mourning, but their two 
incredible children Colin and Sophie rose through their grief and best 
captured their parents' legacy as they said:

       The best way to honor our parents' memory is to do 
     something, whether big or small, to make our community just a 
     little better for someone else.

  And that is exactly what Minnesotans have done. Thousands lined up to 
pay their respects to the Hortmans at the State capitol where Melissa 
was the first woman in Minnesota to lie in state. People planted trees 
to honor Melissa's efforts to strengthen urban and rural forests.
  Donations poured in to Helping Paws the service dog nonprofit where 
the Hortmans volunteered and where their beloved Gilbert, who was also 
shot that night, was trained.
  The organization established the Hortman Heroes Fund to train service 
dogs to help first responders and veterans with PTSD. Their dog Gilbert 
was actually going to be part of that program. And they trained their 
dog, but in the end, it was decided their dog was just too friendly to 
be part of the program in the end, and Melissa and Mark were happy to 
have him back. And he died with them that weekend.

[[Page S2746]]

  Minnesota stood up in their names, for Gilbert, for their family, and 
mostly for Melissa and Mark, and we remember them.
  Our State has lost a lot this year. Just weeks after we lost Melissa 
and Mark, we were once again shaken to our core by a deadly mass 
shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and then the winter with 3,000 
Federal Agents and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
  Our State has been at the center of America's heartbreak, but we have 
also been at the center of its courage and its hope. No one exemplified 
our State's courage and hope more than Melissa. I wish everyone in this 
Chamber knew Melissa. We treasured her in Minnesota. She is the epitome 
of what you want in a public servant, the epitome of someone who stood 
up for her neighbors.
  I first got to know her when we were both running for office around 
the same time, both with little kids, me for the county attorney's 
office, her for State legislature.
  We went door to door together, and even back then it seemed like she 
knew every story and every family in her district. She left a lasting 
impact on each of us, and over her 20 years in the Minnesota State 
House, she left a lasting impact on our State. As minority leader and 
then speaker, Melissa always guided her caucus with conviction and a 
sense of humor. She was always there to support her colleagues, but she 
also wasn't afraid to call out the all-male card game taking place when 
they should have been on the floor debating.
  And after being chosen by her colleagues to be their speaker, the 
first thing she did for the State house was to get rid of the speaker's 
mute button because Melissa always listened to her colleagues, and she 
said at the time:

       I have a gavel . . . and a gavel is good enough for me.

  And with that gavel, Melissa became one of the most consequential and 
arguably the best speakers in the history of our State. Because of 
Melissa, all Minnesota students get a school lunch so hunger doesn't 
stop them from learning and reaching their potential.
  Because of Melissa, Minnesota voters can cast a ballot that works 
best for them, whether that is early voting, mail-in voting, or same-
day registration.
  Because of Melissa, women in Minnesota can access reproductive care 
and continue to make their own decisions about their futures.
  And because of Melissa, who created the Minnesota Community Solar 
Program, which now bears her name, our State is a leader in clean 
energy and protecting the environment.
  She was a generational leader. She led with integrity and courage. 
She consistently reached across the aisle to make life better for 
Minnesotans.
  And her husband Mark, he was compassionate, smart, kind. I met so 
many people who worked with him in his workplace over the years and 
loved him just as much as the legislators loved Melissa.
  As we remember Melissa and Mark, we must also continue to address the 
significant increase in threats and acts of political violence we have 
seen across the country against people of both parties. I want to 
extend my gratitude to the local, State, and Federal law enforcement 
officers who responded that night and who have continued to be there 
for our State.
  It was Melissa, who once said that ``in politics, often the easiest 
thing for anyone to do is run to a microphone, sharpen their dagger, 
and see who has the best press conference. But what's excruciatingly 
difficult in all this high emotion is to get people to the table,'' she 
said, ``and to slog through the work that has to happen.''
  She was right then, and her words hold true today. Each of us has a 
responsibility to bring more people to the table and to take on the 
hard work.
  Melissa and Mark met as volunteers, working to help kids in their 
community, and their dedication to serving others never wavered.
  In her wallet, in her purse, after she died, they found a prayer that 
she always carried, by St. Francis of Assisi. It said this. It said:

       Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

  May we all be instruments of peace just like Melissa.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague Senator 
Klobuchar, who knew and loved and worked closely with Melissa for so 
many years. I know that this is a personal moment for her, to think 
about the loss that we experience every day not having Melissa with us 
but also just being able to capture who she was as a person.
  And this really is a somber day for us. It is almost exactly a year 
since Melissa and Mark were assassinated at their home, along with the 
loss of their dog Gilbert, the same night that John and Yvette Hoffman 
were also shot and, thank God, survived.
  You probably can relate to this because I know every party and every 
State has a big party dinner, and it was kind of incredible for us 
because Melissa and Mark were shot in the wee hours after our big party 
dinner. And so we had all been together just hours before we lost them.
  And it was a horrifying act of targeted political violence that 
shocked our State and also transfixed the Nation as law enforcement 
searched for the perpetrator of this horror. And we collectively 
searched for meaning in these senseless acts.
  And it is 1 year later, and in most ways this loss still feels so 
fresh to all of us. This solemn anniversary, I know, will probably 
bring a fresh wave of opinions and think pieces trying to answer the 
questions of what Melissa's death means and where we go from here, what 
this says about the state of American politics or what it might reveal 
about our frayed democracy.
  And I have to tell you, honestly, that I don't have answers to those 
weighty questions, but what I know is that, today, I want to remember 
my friend Melissa and how she really exemplified what it should mean to 
be in public service, to be a public servant.
  I love that Amy read that quote from St. Francis because that was all 
about the value of being a servant in the cause of helping people's 
lives be better. Melissa was born in Fridley, MN, which is a suburb of 
the Twin Cities. She was gifted. She was smart. She excelled because 
she worked really hard, not because anything was ever handed to her. 
And she really pretty much thought that any job that was worth doing 
was worth doing right. And that is the mantra that she carried with 
her, whether it was her first job making burritos to her last job 
leading Minnesota's House through a dramatic and consequential 
legislative session.
  She felt a deep responsibility to put her talents to work in the 
cause of service. And, you know, it is interesting. She started in 
public service as an intern in this very body. We have interns here on 
the floor today. So think about that, where this woman's life took her.
  She was an intern for Senator Al Gore and then Senator John Kerry and 
then she decided to go to law school. And there she served the cause of 
justice in the State courts and as a prosecutor where she fought 
against housing discrimination, and she won those cases.
  And then she decided to get involved in local politics. After 
volunteering on campaigns, she decided to run herself. And she actually 
ran for office twice before winning. So she was tenacious. She was not 
afraid to persevere, even when she faced some headwinds because she 
really believed that she had something to offer, yes, but that she also 
had a responsibility to help.
  Melissa and I got to know each other well when I was chief of staff 
to the Governor of Minnesota and she was coming into leadership in the 
State house.
  And, you know, we all know well in this body that writing and passing 
legislation is an incredibly rewarding activity, but it also can be 
tiresome and frustrating, and it takes a really long time. It is 
inconvenient, and it can be pretty annoying too.
  So when you are in those moments--as Senator Klobuchar was saying--
and you are trying to hash it out and work it out and get people to the 
table, you need somebody like Melissa there because she knows how to 
get the job done. She would always be ready with a fresh idea about, 
like, what is it going to take to deliver a result here.
  And she also was really funny. She was quick with a quip and a funny 
joke

[[Page S2747]]

to keep the process moving and to keep people focused on taking what 
they were doing seriously without taking themselves too seriously.
  I can tell you from personal experience that she also was pretty fun 
if you wanted to get together after all that work for a margarita.
  As a legislator and eventually as speaker of the Minnesota House, 
Melissa approached her work in this way: by leading with compassion and 
respect, always staying in touch with our shared humanity. And, of 
course, she was unafraid to demand the same respect in return, both for 
herself and for others.
  She was a woman leader, a leader who was a woman in a time when, 
sometimes even to this day, women are sort of not paid as much 
attention to as they deserve.
  And Amy was referring to this. Once on the house floor, Melissa 
called out a group of male legislators who were playing cards in a back 
room rather than paying attention to women legislators that were 
speaking on the floor about how a criminal justice bill was going to 
impact their communities.
  And so Melissa called them out. And, I mean, they were pretty pissed. 
They were unaccustomed to being confronted by their rude behavior, and 
they actually demanded an apology. And Melissa's response was 
characteristically honest and simple. She said, ``I'm really tired of 
watching women of color, in particular, being ignored. So [I will not 
apologize].''
  And this became kind of a thing. The next day, all over the Minnesota 
State Capitol, people were wearing T-shirts that said, ``I will not 
apologize.'' It was quite--it was quite a moment.
  Melissa stood up for others. She spoke truth to power, and she 
insisted that we treat each other with dignity and respect because 
public service should be--you know, even in a climate like we are in 
today, public service is serious business, unlike some of the 
nonserious activities that we see every day here in Washington.
  So here is Melissa's true legacy: Millions of Minnesotans are better 
off because Melissa Hortman did the work that she did.
  They have healthier drinking water because Melissa secured the 
funding that will eliminate lead water service lines in Minnesota.
  Minnesotan schoolchildren will be able to focus on their learning. 
They won't be hungry because Melissa helped pass free breakfast and 
lunch for all Minnesota families with their kids in school.
  Starting this year, Minnesotans will have access to paid leave. Every 
Minnesotan will have access to paid medical and family leave to care 
for their new babies, to take care of a loved one who might be ill 
because Melissa never gave up on that project and believed that that 
should be something that everybody has.
  One year after her death, I still can't quite believe that she is 
gone. We had our big party dinner just last Friday night, and I kept 
looking around and wondering--forgetting that she wasn't there.
  And I know this summer, this fall, when I am out door-knocking, that 
I and a lot of people will be thinking about how she was always out 
there, doing the organizing of politics.
  But, today, I am really focused on what Melissa and Mark meant to me 
and to all of us who had the privilege to know them. And my heart is 
with their family and their friends and especially their children 
Sophie and Colin. I know that they are comforted by the fact that so 
many people loved Mark and Melissa so much.
  And I think that we would all do well to follow the advice of their 
children Sophie and Colin. And when they were asked so many times in 
the days after Melissa and Mark were killed, what people could do to 
help, this is what they told us. They 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 their amenities, especially a bike 
     trail. Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will 
     do. Tell your loved one 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 [new]. Stand up for what you believe in, especially 
     if that thing is justice and peace.

  That is a good inspiration for all of us every single day.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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