A politician’s nightmare became reality this weekend, when two Minnesota state legislators and their spouses were shot in their homes. Other current and aspiring politicians around the country must be asking themselves, is public office worth it?
In the overnight hours between Friday and Saturday, a gunman posing as a police officer killed Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. In a separate shooting eight miles away, the same suspect critically injured Sen. John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Police found in the suspect’s vehicle a list with the names of 70 other potential targets, all of whom must shudder at the thought that their lives could have been extinguished just as easily as Hortman’s.
Public office in America has always been challenging, but now, it has also become dangerous. In recent years, the list of government officials and candidates who have been targeted is long. In 2017, Rep. Steve Scalise was shot at a congressional baseball practice. In 2022, Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked in their home by an intruder with a hammer who was looking for the former Speaker of the House. That same year, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg was targeted by a gunman while campaigning. Greenberg escaped uninjured, but a bullet grazed his sweater. Earlier this year, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family awoke to a burning home after an arsonist set fire to it. State and federal judges and their families have also been the victims of fatal shootings. President Donald Trump was also the target of two attempted assassinations during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Here in my home state of Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer was the target of a kidnapping plot in 2020 by men who were unhappy with her shutdown orders. Following that year’s election, an armed mob, angry with the results of the presidential election, surrounded the home of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson while she was inside with her four-year-old son.
Our nation is no stranger to political violence. We have seen the assassination of four presidents as well as thwarted attempts. Governors, mayors and other elected officials have also been killed in office. But our deep political divides, heated speech online, and the abundance of guns makes this moment particularly toxic. Who would choose to expose themselves or their families to threats, harassment or even death?
The question is whether a moment like this will change us. Political violence is intended to intimidate and silence people for expressing their views. Will the shootings scare off candidates for public office? Or will it instead steel their resolve?
The choice is up to the rest of us. As Americans, all of us must denounce political violence and rally behind the leaders who put their neck on the line to serve others. Public service at any level, from dog catcher to president of the United States, requires significant investments of time, energy and personal engagement. It also requires enormous sacrifices of family life, emotional wellbeing and often income. But it should not require risking one’s life.
We can certainly criticize the policy views of an official or a candidate and campaign for their opponents, but we must refrain from the kind of personal attacks that have turned American politics into a blood sport. When we speak at meetings of our school boards or city councils, we can express our views, with civility and respect instead of raised-voice tantrums, even when we profoundly disagree. We can show restraint when communicating on social media. Owning our opponents in online zingers may attract likes and shares, but it also raises the temperature of the political heat. All of the angry rhetoric creates a slow burn that can spark an unhinged individual to violence, an affront to our nation’s values. As stated by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, herself a victim of gun violence in 2011, “An attack against lawmakers is an attack on democracy itself.”
So let’s make this a moment when, despite all of our differences, we agree to honor the Minnesota lawmakers by uniting around the idea that political violence is un-American. As Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who personally knew the victims, said, the shootings were “an attack on everything we stand for as a democracy. We must all condemn it. And we must refuse to be a country where anyone is silenced by threats or violence.”
