Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota lawmaker who was gunned down in what is described as a politically motivated attack, earned degrees at Boston University and Harvard.

Melissa Hortman’ s influence at the Minnesota Capitol and her power as a Democratic leader to shape the course of a deeply divided Legislature were a far cry from her job as a teenager making chili-cheese burritos and overshadowed her volunteer work training service dogs for veterans.

Selfless, humble and full of grit -- that was the Melissa Hortman that Minnesota lawmakers grew to love over two decades in the statehouse.

A special election to fill slain DFL House Leader Rep. Melissa Hortman’s seat will be held at some point before next February. Hortman and her husband were killed early Saturday morning in their Brooklyn Park home.

When a longtime Minnesota lawmaker died after a battle with ALS, former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman helped pass historic legislation in search of a cure.

Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, were shot and killed early Saturday morning in “what appears to be a politically-motivated assassination,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said at a news conference Saturday.

But there was a caring, apolitical gracefulness as well to Hortman, colleagues said. Garofalo said that in the days after the 2022 elections, when Democrats took control of state

Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette, who were both shot in their home by the suspect who is believed to have later killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark, in a “politically motivated assassination” on Saturday,