logo
Walz calls Sept. 16 special election to fill slain lawmaker Rep. Melissa Hortman's seat

Walz calls Sept. 16 special election to fill slain lawmaker Rep. Melissa Hortman's seat

Yahoo14-07-2025
Brooklyn Park voters will take to the polls on Sept. 16 to fill the vacant seat of Rep. Melissa Hortman, who was killed last month in a politically motivated assassination.
Gov. Tim Walz on Friday issued a writ of special election for the House District 34B seat, which encompasses parts of Anoka and Hennepin counties.
A special primary for the seat, if necessary, will be on Aug. 12.
Hortman and her husband were shot and killed on June 14 in their Brooklyn Park home. Their deaths, along with the attempted assassination of Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, and his wife have left Minnesota in a state of shock and grief.
Hortman first ran for the House seat in 1998 and 2002 and lost both times before winning in 2004 in what was then a swing district. Like many suburban districts, it has since become solidly blue. In 2024, Hortman won her race by 26 percentage points over her Republican challenger and served as the House DFL caucus leader until her death.
Given the current status of the House — Republicans hold a 1-seat (67-66) advantage — Democrats are likely to take no chances, despite the near lock on keeping the seat. House Democrats will also likely knock on doors and fundraise to keep the seat blue in honor of their former leader.
Brooklyn Park City Council member Christian Eriksen earlier this week announced that he intends to seek the DFL endorsement for the open seat.
'I know in our communities, this seat will endure as 'Melissa's Seat,'' Eriksen said in a social media post announcing his candidacy. 'It is with great respect to her legacy, as well as the legacy of all those whom have served before us, that I run for this office.'
More: St. Cloud's Minnesota House reps mourn state legislator shot in targeted attack
No Republican candidates have announced for the seat yet.
Hortman, who was among the most influential Minnesota elected officials in the past decade, served as House Speaker from 2019 to 2024.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation's largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz calls special election to fill Hortman's seat
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell should serve 'life sentence,' opposes potential pardon
Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell should serve 'life sentence,' opposes potential pardon

USA Today

timean hour ago

  • USA Today

Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell should serve 'life sentence,' opposes potential pardon

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said he believes Ghislaine Maxwell, a key associate of Jeffrey Epstein currently serving 20 years in prison for conspiring to sexually abuse minors, should face "a life sentence." "If you're asking my opinion, I think 20 years was a pittance," Johnson told NBC's Kristen Welker on "Meet the Press" July 27. "I think she should have a life sentence, at least." His remarks to NBC come as many, including supporters of President Donald Trump, clamor for testimony from Maxwell. Some followers of the case have proposed a pardon in exchange, but Trump told reporters on July 25 he hadn't considered the move. "I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about," the president said. Epstein was charged with sexually trafficking minors and died by suicide while in detention in 2019. Maxwell, his longtime girlfriend, has been accused of recruiting minors for the disgraced financier's predation. Maxwell maintains her innocence and is appealing her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction. Johnson in his interview with NBC reiterated that pardons aren't up to him, telling the outlet, "obviously that's a decision of the president." "I won't get it in front of him," Johnson said. "That's not my lane." But, later in the interview he noted, "It's hard to put into words how evil this was, and that she orchestrated it and was a big part of it." "So, again, not my decision," he added, "but I have great pause about that, as any reasonable person would." The Trump administration for weeks has faced backlash over its handling of Epstein's case. Critics from Democratic lawmakers to prominent Republicans and slices of Trump's voter base accuse the president and other officials of not being transparent with the American people. The speaker has faced his own ongoing Epstein-related criticism, as some House Republicans have zeroed in on the Justice Department's recent review of Epstein's case and are calling for related documents to be released publicly. Democrats in Congress have piled on too. Reps. Ro Khanna, D-California, and Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, introduced a bipartisan measure to force the Trump administration's hand in releasing the federal government's files. Also on "Meet The Press," the pair split on pardoning Maxwell. "That would be up to the president," Massie said. "But if she has information that could help us, then I think she should testify. Let's get that out there. And whatever they need to do to compel that testimony, as long as it's truthful, I would be in favor of." Khanna disagreed, saying Maxwell shouldn't receive a pardon. "Look, I agree with Congressman Massie that she should testify," the California Democrat said. "But she's been indicted twice on perjury. This is why we need the files. This is why we need independent evidence." Contributing: Bart Jansen and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY

Trump insists Hamas is stealing food amid Gaza hunger crisis
Trump insists Hamas is stealing food amid Gaza hunger crisis

The Hill

timean hour ago

  • The Hill

Trump insists Hamas is stealing food amid Gaza hunger crisis

President Trump on Sunday said Hamas is stealing food that was meant for people in Gaza, telling reporters multiple times that goods are being stolen when pressed on the hunger crisis in the region. The president, while sitting next to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry, Scotland, was asked for his response to the images of starving children in Gaza. 'When I see the children and when I see, especially over the last couple of weeks people are stealing the food, they're stealing the money, they're stealing the money for the food. They're stealing weapons, they're stealing everything,' the president said. He added, 'It's a mess, that whole place is a mess. The Gaza strip, you know it was given many years ago so they could have peace. That didn't work out too well.' The Israeli military has reported that there is no proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid. Earlier on Sunday, Israel's military said it will start a 'tactical pause' in fighting in Gaza amid mass starvation concerns. Trump said he spoke recently with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding, 'I talked to him about a lot of things. I talked to him about Iran.' He said the U.S. would send more aid into Gaza and pressed other nations to contribute as well, suggesting that would be part of his conversation with der Leyen. And, he reiterated the claims about Hamas stealing food. 'It's not a U.S. problem, it's an international problem,' Trump said on Gaza. 'If we weren't there. I think people would have starved, frankly. They would have starved, and it's not like they're eating well, but a lot of that food is getting stolen by Hamas. They're stealing the food, they're stealing a lot of things. You ship it in and they steal it, then they sell it,' he said. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also insisted that Hamas has stolen the food on NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday and noted that Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., and other Israeli officials told him that Hamas has stolen 'a huge amount' of food since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7, 2023. Trump on Sunday said that the U.S. gave $60 million in aid for Gaza two weeks ago, but said that 'nobody even acknowledged it.' 'Nobody acknowledged it, nobody talks about it, and it makes you feel a little bad when you do that, and no other countries give anything,' he said. He said that Israel has to decide what happens next in the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. 'What's going to happen? I don't know,' Trump said. 'Israel's going to have to make a decision. I know what I'd do but I don't think it's appropriate that I say.' The Trump administration last week said it was leaving Gaza ceasefire talks, blaming Hamas for failing to engage in good faith. Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy for peace missions, said the administration is considering alternative plans to secure the freedom of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the future governance of the territory.

What polls show about a very confusing political landscape
What polls show about a very confusing political landscape

CNN

timean hour ago

  • CNN

What polls show about a very confusing political landscape

Donald Trump Election pollsFacebookTweetLink Follow The political landscape right now is more confusing than a corn maze. For every data point that suggests Republicans face headwinds, there seems to be another that suggests Democrats should hold their britches. It all leaves this political analyst wondering just what the heck is going on out there, to paraphrase the great Vince Lombardi. Let's start with President Donald Trump's approval rating. Gallup released a poll last week putting Trump's approval rating (37%), way down from the beginning of his second term (47%). The poll made a lot of press. Then you have the Wall Street Journal survey, which got a lot less play and showed something very different. Trump's net approval ratings among registered voters (approval - disapproval), while still negative at -6 percentage points, have barely declined from earlier this year. His approval rating of 46% looks a lot like it did at the start of the year. There are even surveys that have Trump's approval rating basically equal to his disapproval rating. Diving deeper into the data can leave one more befuddled, even when looking at the averages. Trump's approval rating with independents is lower than any president at this point in office. Yet he's lost very little ground with Republicans since the beginning of the year. This is important because there are a lot of them (e.g. see the section below this one). The average overall, regardless of how you compute the average, still does have Trump's net approval negative. That's where I think it is. Yet, I can't guarantee it. We've seen too many times in the last decade that the range of the results gave us a better understanding of the potential outcomes than the average did at pinpointing where things would end up. Pollsters will almost always ask how people identify themselves: Democrat, Republican or independent. Then they'll follow that up by asking independents whether they lean toward the Democratic or Republican side of the aisle. Party identification is one of the fundamental variables to understand how people will vote. Most Democrats will vote for Democratic candidates, while most Republicans will vote for Republican candidates. No wonder a lot of people took note of the Pew Research Center's annual benchmark poll that was released last week that showed 46% of the country were Republican or leaned Republican to 45% who were Democratic or leaned Democratic. That margin is no different from last year's version of the poll, before Trump won the presidency again. Pew's data, however, isn't the only data. I asked Quinnipiac University for their polls conducted during roughly the same period. Quinnipiac shows a pretty clear swing to the Democrats over the course of the year. During the January-to-February period, Republicans (including leaners) held a 1- to 3-point advantage on party affiliation. Democrats, however, were ahead by 2 to 4 points in the April and June polls. This included two 4-point edges in both June surveys they put into the field. I don't know who is right. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. Democrats may be slightly ahead, though that's not great on a metric where they have usually been ahead over the years. This question is one of my favorites. It asks respondents some form of 'would you vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate from your district?' The polling does seem to have the Democrats up. The Journal has them up narrowly among registered voters by 3 points. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from June finds the parties about evenly matched, with Democrats at 40% to Republicans' 38%. This is well behind the pace of where Democrats were in either 2005 or 2017 — the years before they won wave elections in the midterms. The Democratic lead in those cycles was closer to 7 points. Confused? You haven't seen anything yet. Ipsos' poll actually looks no different from their final poll on the subject in 2024, the year Republicans held on to the House. The Journal poll, which is one of Trump's better ones, shows the Democrats gaining significantly from its final survey in 2024, when Republicans were up by 4 points. But the seat-by-seat landscape in the House isn't the most appealing for Democrats. Both the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections show more potential pickup opportunities for the Republicans than Democrats. This is without any pro-Republican redistricting that might occur in Texas — or potential pro-Democratic redistricting in other states as retaliation for whatever Texas does. Democrats had more pickup chances than Republicans by this point in both 2005 and especially 2017, according to Cook. I should point out, however, that Democrats don't need a wave to take back the House. They need a small gain given the GOP's razor-thin majority. But with a smaller-than-usual lead on the generic ballot for Democrats and potential redistricting, that may not happen. All of this leaves me a little befuddled. I believe Trump is more unpopular than not. Given that fact, I believe Republicans are in clear trouble for 2026. I'd probably have said the same thing during the 2022 cycle, when Joe Biden's approval rating was awful heading into those midterms. And while Democrats lost the House that fall, Republicans barely pulled it off. This cycle strikes me as even more confusing. And who can forget the most important variable? It's still 2025. It was only months before the 2022 midterms that Roe v. Wade got overturned and gave Democrats a political shot in the arm. We have a long way to go.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store