Minnesota lawmaker and her husband remembered for their shared legacy

Former President Joe Biden pays his respects as State. Rep. Melissa Hortman; her husband, Mark; and their dog, Gilbert, lie in state inside the rotunda at the Minnesota State Capitol in Minneapolis, on Friday, June 27, 2025. (Tim Gruber/The New York Times)

By Jeff Ernst and Jack Healy

Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were remembered at their funeral Saturday as “extraordinary public servants” who were killed in an inexplicable act of political violence.

Their wooden caskets rested side by side inside the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis as hundreds of political colleagues, friends and relatives sat shoulder to shoulder in the pews to say goodbye to the couple, who were assassinated at their suburban Minneapolis home this month.

Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined the mourners for the somber Catholic funeral Mass, although neither spoke during the service.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, his eyes red from crying, delivered the eulogy. He praised Hortman, a former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, as a consequential and compassionate political leader and her husband as her proudest supporter. Walz said their shared legacy included improving roads and bridges, and free school lunches and expanded preschool for children.

“Millions of Minnesotans will get to live their lives better because she and Mark chose public service,” Walz said.

He referred only obliquely to the June 14 attack that has forced people across Minnesota and the country to grapple with recent political violence.

Walz focused on the Hortmans’ political commitment and their love of gardening, playing billiards, and making sourdough and margaritas, letting their lives stand in contrast with their killings.

“Maybe this is a moment when each of us can examine the way we work together, the way we talk about each other, the way we fight for the things we care about,” Walz said. “A moment when each of us can recommit to engaging in politics and life the way Mark and Melissa did: fiercely, enthusiastically, heartily, but without ever losing sight of our common humanity.”

Several people wiped tears during Walz’s eulogy, which included some moments of levity about the Capitol’s chilly, poorly lit rooms and Hortman’s love of ’80s music.

In his homily, the Rev. Daniel Griffith said the Hortmans’ killings had made Minnesota ground zero for political violence and extremism in the United States, just as the murder of George Floyd in 2020 had made the state an epicenter for a national debate over racial injustice.

“Both of these must be decried in the strongest possible terms,” Griffith said. “They are, respectively, a threat to human dignity and indeed our democracy.”

Authorities say a 57-year-old suspect impersonating a police officer fatally shot the Hortmans at their home in the suburb of Brooklyn Park, the same night he shot and seriously wounded another Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and his wife. The suspect had named dozens of other potential political targets, authorities said.

Saturday’s funeral was an extraordinary tableau that mixed public and private grief with hope that some good could be salvaged from the Hortmans’ deaths. Between hymns and Gospel readings, mourners offered public prayers asking for an end to violence, hate and division.

The service was also the culmination of an outpouring of mourning across Minnesota. On Friday, Biden joined thousands of politicians and everyday Minnesotans who streamed into the Capitol rotunda, where the Hortmans lay in state, surrounded by photos and flowers. An urn containing the ashes of their golden retriever, Gilbert, who was also killed in the attack, sat beside them.

On Saturday, as the service began, a priest blessed the Hortmans’ caskets as their son, Colin, broke down in tears and reached for the hand of his sister, Sophie. Walz, one of the pallbearers, cried as he accompanied the caskets to the front of the church. He embraced Harris, his 2024 presidential running mate, as they took their seats.

The pews were filled with dozens of current and former state lawmakers from both parties. The state’s former governor, Mark Dayton, and its current attorney general, Keith Ellison, were among those who attended. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith joined hundreds of other people who were watching a livestream from afar. Some were still struggling to make sense of what had happened.

“It’s unthinkable,” said Kurt Daudt, a former Republican representative and one of Melissa Hortman’s main political adversaries. He said they “fought like cats and dogs” but shared a mutual respect. “We each need to do a better job of understanding that while we may disagree, we’re all humans, and we all care about this country and each other.”

Molly Pederson, a researcher at the statehouse, said she hoped the couple’s killings would end the “dehumanizing rhetoric” aimed at political figures.

Before an honor guard escorted the Hortmans’ caskets out of the church, Colin Hortman stood and quoted from the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. He said his mother kept the prayer in her wallet as a constant reminder of her personal “Golden Rule.” It read in part, “Where there is hatred, let me sow love.”

“It never left her side,” he said.