20 hours ago
What Did They Do To Make People Hate Them So Much?
What did Rep. Melissa Hortman and the other victims do that made someone hate them enough to kill?
That's the question Minnesota Democrats are scrambling to answer after the former House Speaker and her husband were gunned down in their Brooklyn Park home in what police have called a politically motivated assassination.
The man accused of pulling the trigger — Vance Luther Boelter — isn't a right-wing extremist. He's a Democratic insider who held official appointments under Gov. Tim Walz and former Gov. Mark Dayton, both Democrats.
A 2019 state documents confirm Boelter served on the Governor's Workforce Development Board as recently as 2023.
So why would someone from within the party kill two of its most prominent figures?
Just days before her death, Hortman cast the lone Democratic vote to cut taxpayer-funded healthcare for adult illegal immigrants, siding with Republicans to get the state's budget over the finish line.
The move stunned progressives and triggered an emotional reaction even from Hortman herself, who broke down in tears at a press conference following the vote. In the video, she defends her decision:
'I did what leaders do… I stepped up and I got the job done for the people of Minnesota.'
Video footage of the emotional moment — captured by KTTC News and widely shared on social media — shows Hortman visibly shaken by the backlash.
Days later, she was dead.
Boelter wasn't some unaffiliated madman. He was deeply embedded in Minnesota's Democratic establishment for nearly a decade. But recent evidence suggests he had turned on the very party that had empowered him:
Police recovered a manifesto and a 'kill list' from Boelter's vehicle naming top Democrats: Gov. Walz, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sen. Tina Smith, and AG Keith Ellison
Flyers promoting 'No Kings' — a phrase tied to far-left anti-establishment ideology — were also found in his car
Law enforcement says the killings were politically motivated — but so far, no evidence points to any Republican ties. Everything suggests Boelter was targeting Democrats exclusively.
Theories are swirling:
Was Boelter a radical leftist who believed moderate Democrats like Hortman were betraying the cause and weren't left enough?
Or was this something darker — did Democrats kill their own so they could turn around and blame Republicans?
What seems clear is this: There's no evidence this was a right-wing plot. Boelter was a Democrat who allegedly turned violent against his own.
Hortman's death has exposed a deeper rift inside the Democratic Party — between those who demand ideological purity and those, like Hortman, who choose compromise to govern.
Her final act as a lawmaker was to break with her party and side with Republicans on a politically explosive issue — and days later, she was killed, allegedly by a fellow Democrat.
Was it revenge? Radical extremism? Or a symptom of growing volatility in American politics?
Whatever the motive, one chilling question remains:
What could she have done to provoke someone from her own side to kill her?
