
Slain Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman, husband and dog to lie in state
The affidavit says Boelter wanted to "kill, injure, harass and intimidate'' more than 45 Minnesota state and federal officials and prosecutors say he also intended to target several other Midwestern lawmakers.
Hortman will be the first woman and one of less than 20 Minnesotans to lie in state at the Capitol, according to a release from the state's House of Representatives. Members of the public will be able to pay their respects from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. local time.
The tribute will come on the same day Boelter is expected to appear in federal court, where he faces half a dozen charges including multiple counts of murder and stalking.
A private funeral for the Hortmans, which will be livestreamed, will follow on June 28, officials said.
The couple had two children and lived in Brooklyn Park, a suburban city about 10 miles north of Minneapolis, according to Hortman's profile.
Hoffman and Hortman are both members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), a political party exclusive to the state. Hortman was elected in 2004 and was Speaker-Emerita of the House of Representatives, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans.
Police: Break-in at home of slain Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman
Hortman served the people of Minnesota with compassion and grace, Gov. Tim Walz previously said.
"Our state lost a great leader and I lost the dearest of friends," Walz said. "She woke up every day determined to make this state a better place."
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, Eduardo Cuevas, Christopher Cann, Terry Collins and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY
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'We're doing something now that is responsive to what is going on with this White House,' the former US attorney general Eric Holder, who now leads the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said during a Sunday interview on Meet the Press. Common Cause, a watchdog group that has been one of the most prominent advocates for gerrymandering reform, announced on Tuesday that it would not stand in the way of retaliatory gerrymanders as long as they met certain fairness criteria. Others have been more critical. 'If the only way to protect democracy is to undermine it – what exactly are you protecting?' Chuck Todd, the former host of NBC's Meet the Press wrote in his newsletter this month. Alex Lee, a Democrat in the California state assembly, offered a similar argument on X last month. 'Fundamentally gerrymandering UNDERMINES democracy. The right answer is to abolish politicians picking their own voters & drawing maps nationally for good. 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Only 27 out of 435 districts – roughly 6% – were considered competitive in the 2024 midterms. Had the proposed map in Texas been in place during the 2024 elections, neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris would have carried a district by less than 10 points (Trump would have carried 30 and Harris eight). 'Ultimately it's not a sustainable solution for anybody. It's a mockery of democracy,' Drutman said. 'At some point I think people have to realize there are better ways to do elections.'