Melissa Hortman's Final Interview, And How To Honor Her Memory

MINNESOTA — Former Minnesota House speaker and state Rep. Melissa Hortman in a final interview with business columnist Evan Ramstad of The Minnesota Star Tribune discussed partisan division and how the Republican Party has changed.

“This is a new kind of Republican,” Hortman told Ramstad last Wednesday, just days before the prominent Democrat; her husband, Mark; and the family dog, Gilbert, were killed early Saturday morning at their northwest suburban home by a man impersonating a police officer and traveling with a list of names, who also attacked state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, according to authorities.

“You look at what’s happening nationally. The party is just so far from its roots. I would relish a real debate over line-by-line spending in the state budget. That’s not where we are. It’s these culture war issues, right?”

Her comments followed down-to-the-wire budget talks in the evenly divided state House during the days before. Republicans were intent this year on ending state health coverage for adult immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally. Democrats wanted to keep it, and lawmakers began June — the last month of the 2025 budget year — without having passed a 2026-27 spending blueprint.

“This othering of people is more important than the fiscal issues that used to drive the party,” Hortman told Ramstad.

Hortman helped negotiate a package that included a bill ending the state health coverage for adult immigrants on Jan. 1, 2026. She was the only House Democrat to vote for it last week — the 68th vote it needed to pass the chamber.

“I noticed Hortman, like many skillful leaders, had a knack for making people feel good for what they knew about things, rather than feel badly for what they didn’t know,” Ramstad noted in a column published Tuesday about the interview. “‘Interesting, but no,’ she said when I mentioned the budget talks looked fairly placid.”

The Hortmans’ children, Sophie and Colin, early this week released a statement that circulated widely on social media, in which they described their parents as “the bright lights at the center of our lives.”

They encouraged anyone wanting to honor their parents’ memory to do 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 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.

“Hope and resilience are the enemy of fear,” the statement 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.”

A GoFundMe is collecting donations to assist the siblings as they navigate the aftermath of the attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.