Democrat wins Minnesota House special election to replace assassinated
leader
[September 17, 2025]
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Democrat Xp Lee won a special election Tuesday to
fill the Minnesota House seat of a top Democratic leader who was
assassinated, restoring a 67-67 tie and preserving a power-sharing deal
that has forced both parties to work together.
Rep. Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, held the seat until her death in
June.
Lee is a former Brooklyn Park City Council member. He defeated
Republican real estate agent Ruth Bittner in the heavily Democratic
district.
Lee promised he would “work hard every day” to honor Hortman’s legacy.
“We did our best to make her proud: knocking on doors daily, making
phone calls, and texting every neighbor we could,” Lee said in a victory
statement.
Lee’s win maintains a power-sharing arrangement that existed for most of
the 2025 legislative session, after the 2024 elections cost House
Democrats their majority.
Former House Speaker Hortman brokered that agreement, which ended
Democrats’ three-week boycott. Under the deal, she agreed to end her
six-year tenure as speaker and let Republican Lisa Demuth take the
position. Hortman then took the title speaker emerita. Most legislative
committees became evenly split between Republican and Democratic
members, with co-chairs from each party.
The tie in the House meant some level of bipartisan agreement was
required to pass anything in this year’s session.
In an indication of the national interest in the race, Democratic
National Committee Chair Ken Martin said Lee’s “commitment to expanding
access to education, affordable health care, and good-paying jobs honors
the legacy” of Hortman.
“Across Minnesota, our hearts are still broken by the horrific
assassination that stole Melissa and her husband Mark,” Martin, who
formerly chaired the state Democratic Party, said in a statement.
“Political violence is a scourge that has taken far too many lives.
Enough is enough. It must end now. And in every case, each of us has a
responsibility to condemn and reject political violence wherever it
rears its head.”
Hortman’s newly elected successor as the top Democrat in the Minnesota
House, Rep. Zack Stephenson, said Lee's victory restores their caucus to
full strength ahead of a potential special session that Gov. Tim Walz
wants to call to address school security and gun violence following a
shooting at a church last month that left two students dead and 21
people injured.
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Xp Lee, Democratic candidate for Minnesota house district 34B,
knocks on doors during campaigning in Brooklyn Park, Minn.,
Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
“That means we’ll prioritize the safety of our kids instead of
access to weapons of war, and we’ll make our economy work better for
all Minnesotans, not just the billionaires," Stephenson, who was a
close ally of Hortman, said in a statement.
The election to replace Hortman came about three months after she
and her husband were gunned down in their home by a man
impersonating a police officer in Brooklyn Park, a suburb northwest
of Minneapolis. Another legislator and his wife also were shot but
survived.
Vance Boelter, 57, faces federal and state murder, attempted murder
and other charges in the June 14 attacks.
Tuesday’s special election also follows another act of political
violence, the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in
Utah last Wednesday. The shootings have been a concern among voters
in the district — and for both candidates.
Lee said last week that he wants to calm the “charged atmosphere” in
the wake of Kirk's death.
Bittner said the violence briefly gave her pause about running for
office, but she concluded that “there’s no way to solve this problem
if we shrink back in fear.”
Two more special elections will be held Nov. 4 in a pair of
Minnesota Senate districts.
One is to fill the seat vacated by Democratic Sen. Nicole Mitchell,
of the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury. She resigned in July after she
was convicted of burglarizing her estranged stepmother’s home. The
other is for the seat of Republican Sen. Bruce Anderson, of the
Minneapolis exurb of Buffalo, who died in July.
Given that the districts are heavily Democratic and heavily
Republican, respectively, control of the Senate isn’t expected to
change. But the Democratic candidate for Mitchell’s seat is state
Rep. Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger, of Woodbury. If she wins, the
governor will have to call another special election to fill her
House seat.
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