A Look Back at Rep. Hortman’s Political Career
Many around Minnesota remember Melissa Hortman as a fearless legislative leader who fought for DFL priorities.
“One of the ways we can get more workers back in the workforce, is to make sure everyone has paid family and medical leave,” Hortman said at a news conference in January 2023 as she outlined legislative priorities for that year’s session.
But before becoming one of the state’s most influential lawmakers, she was a young candidate from Brooklyn Park who wanted what’s best for her constituents.
“We need somebody with a very strong personality who’s willing to lead a team of north metro legislators across party lines, Democrats and Republicans, working together as a coalition to get things done for our area,” she said at a campaign event in June of 2004.
Candidate Melissa Hortman speaking at a campaign event in June 2004.
Five months after that interview, voters elected her to her first term in the Minnesota House after two prior defeats. It’s where she stayed for the next 20 years.
In the 2017 session, she rose to the ranks of House Minority Leader.
“I want the Republicans who are in charge of the legislature to be successful over the next two years, because if they’re successful, then Minnesotans will be successful,” she said during a December 2016 interview with CCX News.
Two years later, Hortman was named House Speaker. It’s a position she held for six years until she relinquished the role this past winter with the state House in a tie.
“I think that there will be an opportunity for us to show Minnesotans some good, bipartisan, working together and getting things done,” Hortman said before the start of this year’s session.
The lawmakers would need a special session to pass a state budget, but eventually, they did get things done.
“I’m pleased that we had a smooth and bipartisan day,” she said on June 9, following the conclusion of the special session.
It was her final act in a career cut short.
