Among Representative Melissa Hortman’s final votes in the Minnesota legislature was one she agonized over.
Lawmakers in the evenly split chamber had been in a bitter standoff over a Republican-backed provision that would make undocumented adults in Minnesota ineligible for the state’s health care program for low-income residents.
The fight, which could have led to a government shutdown, was resolved after Ms. Hortman, the top Democrat in the House, cast the lone Democratic vote in support of the measure earlier this month, paving the way for passage of the state budget.
“I know people will be hurt by that vote,” she told reporters afterward, breaking down in tears. “I did what leaders do. I stepped up and I got the job done for the people of Minnesota.”
The decision, colleagues said, was a prime example of the way Ms. Hortman thought about politics, often making a point of working across party lines and acting more as a pragmatist than an ideologue.
Colleagues remembered Ms. Hortman, who was fatally shot early Saturday in what officials described as a political assassination, as a hardworking, problem-solving leader who managed to negotiate her way through impasses, even within her own party, over two decades in the Legislature.
“We have a huge division of values, thoughts and beliefs” said Representative Leigh Finke, a Democrat from St. Paul. “But she held us together.”
Ms. Hortman, 55, served as speaker from 2019 until early 2025 — a period during which Democrats gained power and passed an array of liberal legislation that included expanding abortion rights, legalizing recreational marijuana and requiring that employers provide medical and family leave.
As flowers were left over the weekend at the State Capitol in memory of Ms. Hortman and her husband, Mark, who was also killed in the attacks, Gov. Tim Walz described her as “the most consequential speaker in state history.”
Ms. Hortman, a lawyer by training, was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2004, beating an incumbent after losing twice. Over the years, she gained a reputation as a workhorse, skilled at getting difficult objectives accomplished and at collaborating effectively across the aisle.
“She always did her homework,” said Steve Simon, Minnesota’s Democratic secretary of state, who met Ms. Hortman in law school at the University of Minnesota in the 1990s. “She was steely and strategic and savvy and yet so likable as a person because she always remembered people’s humanity, even and especially if they were on the other side of the aisle.”
Ms. Hortman’s most notable period in office may have come in 2023, a legislative session that followed Democrats’ victories in both the House and the Senate. With Mr. Walz in the governor’s office, the Democrats had a trifecta — and a window of opportunity to pass liberal bills Republicans had long blocked.
Contentious measures Mr. Walz signed into law that year included a bill allowing unauthorized immigrants to obtain drivers licenses, funding free meals for most students in the state and protecting transition-related medical treatment for transgender minors.
As the session ended, Republican officials and even some Democrats complained that the state had swung too far left. Ms. Hortman, who described herself as a suburban moderate, said she was proud of all the laws that had been passed.
“What we heard from voters was that they were sick of gridlock,” Ms. Hortman said in an interview last year, recalling the 2023 session. “The things we did were things that the electorate had made clear over a series of elections that they wanted to get done.”
After that year, Republicans criticized Ms. Hortman and other Democrats for the speed with which they spent a nearly $17.5 billion surplus. Republicans said the Democrats had acted in ways that were fiscally irresponsible for the state’s future.
All the same, Ms. Hortman said that she took pride in her ability to find common ground with Republicans, even as doing so became harder, she said, as deepening polarization made “people calcified in their party identification.”
Early this year, Ms. Hortman found herself in a central role during a particularly tense period at the Minnesota State Capitol. Voters left the House evenly split last November, and Republican challenges to two seats won by Democrats led to a fight over tactics and control.
After House Democrats boycotted the early weeks of the session, delaying state business, Ms. Hortman negotiated a deal. Under the agreement, Ms. Hortman’s Republican counterpart, Representative Lisa Demuth, could serve as speaker for a two-year period even though the parties had an equal number of seats in the chamber. Committees would be jointly chaired by both sides.
Once the session started, Ms. Demuth and Ms. Hortman found ways to collaborate.
“We worked together extremely well as we fought side-by-side for our shared values,” Ms. Demuth said on Sunday.
Ms. Hortman’s vote earlier this month to make undocumented adults in the state ineligible for Minnesota’s health care program for low-income residents drew vociferous opposition from some members of her caucus. Fellow Democrats said she had agreed to give Republicans the vote they needed only after negotiating that minors who were undocumented would remain eligible for the health care.
After the contentious vote, the two party leaders huddled for a moment.
“I like it so much better when we get along than when we’re fighting,” Ms. Demuth recalled Ms. Hortman saying.
Ernesto Londoño is a Times reporter based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest and drug use and counternarcotics policy.
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