Dear Neighbors,
My wife, Judy, and I were awakened early Saturday morning to the sound of Bloomington Police officers pounding on our door to inform us of the shootings of our colleagues and to let us know that they would be keeping an eye on our home until the shooter was apprehended. The death of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman was not confirmed to us until later that morning through House channels. We have been in shock ever since.
Melissa Hortman was the most effective leader I ever had the privilege of working with in my 50-year public/private career. She was a master legislative strategist, and, above all, she was a team builder. She understood that the way you create a legislative majority is to build a “bigger tent” than the other guy, and the Minnesota House DFL Caucus that she built is the most diverse team (in every sense of the word) that I have ever been a part of. She succeeded in building a team with such solidarity that it never cracked, not even this year when the loss of a single vote in a tied House would have resulted in the undoing of much of our successes during the previous two years. To a person, we trusted her judgement without question and, when one of us had to provide a painful vote to deny affordable health insurance to taxpaying undocumented workers, she elected to provide it herself, to honor the agreement she had reluctantly made to avoid a government shutdown.
Yesterday, the team she built gathered in our caucus room at the Capitol to share our memories of working with her. There were a lot of tears, some laughter and many hugs. The 66 remaining brothers and sisters of our extended family needed this catharsis. It would be tempting to characterize Melissa as irreplaceable, but she developed a generation of leaders who will follow in her footsteps – our caucus will remain strong and well-led. Our resolve has not been shaken!
Judy and I want to thank the members of the Bloomington Police Department, who continuously watched over our home from Saturday morning until the shooter was captured. We also want to thank all the many friends, neighbors and colleagues who have reached out to us to express their support. It has meant so much to us.
Bloomington’s House delegation (Nathan Coulter, Julie Green and I) will still hold our town hall meeting next Tuesday, June 23rd in the City Council Chambers at Bloomington Civic Plaza. I will be working on end-of-session summaries over the next few days, so look for more from me over the course of the week.
Melissa Hortman was a fellow advocate for gun violence protection.
Representative Steve Elkins