06/14/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/14/2025 18:09
Statement by NOW President Christian F. Nunes
The assassin who took the lives of Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and critically wounded State Senator John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, as motivated by a dark current of politics that is growing more dangerous and putting people's lives at risk.
Attacks on lawmakers and their families are attacks on our democracy itself-and on all of our families. Violent extremism is increasingly seen as permissible, justified or needed to punish political opponents and squelch opposition. But this can never be.
NOW members mourn the loss of Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman, and we are praying for the speedy recovery of John Hoffman and Yvette Hoffman.
And we are also determined to honor the lawmakers, judges, public officials and others who we have lost who have stood for democracy, equal rights, justice and fairness for all by working even harder to ensure that tragedies like this no longer tear us apart.