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Sen. John Hoffman calls on Democrats to build trust in first speech since attempted assassination • Minnesota Reformer [1]
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Date: 2025-08-25
In Sen. John Hoffman’s first major public appearance since he and his family were the survivors of attempted political assassinations in June, Hoffman urged top Democratic officials from around the country to re-establish trust — in institutions, and among people.
“In this political climate, we must recommit ourselves to governance over grievance, to service over self, and to action over anger,” Hoffman said in a speech closing out the first general session of the Democratic National Committee summer meeting in Minneapolis.
Hoffman spoke in the same hotel where he and other Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor elected officials had gathered for a celebratory dinner on June 13, hours before a masked man shot him and his wife, Yvette, and killed DFL House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.
Hortman was frequently invoked in the meeting’s opening session, which featured speeches from DNC Chair Ken Martin, Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, state Rep. Zack Stephenson of Coon Rapids and Texas House Minority Leader Gene Wu.
“We have not moved on from it,” Walz said of the assassinations. “It is not a new news cycle for us. We are forever changed by it, but we are a hearty people.”
Hoffman spent many weeks in the hospital after sustaining nine gunshot wounds; his wife was shot eight times. Bullets narrowly missed their daughter, Hope.
Sporting a splint on a finger of his left hand — he has a rod in it — Hoffman listed three values he wants Democrats to revive: courage, truth, and listening to the American people.
“I heard from many people from across this country since June 14, and Americans across the political spectrum are thirsting for those things,” Hoffman said
His example of courage: An early-career Hubert Humphrey standing up at the Democratic National Convention in 1948 and challenging the party to adopt a strong civil rights agenda.
The Minnesota speakers offered remembrances of Hortman and offered lessons from her leadership.
DNC Chair Ken Martin ended his speech with a common Hortman refrain: “Power is fleeting, and you never know when you’ll have it again.”
“So use your power,” Martin said. “Use your power, when you have it, to make the biggest difference you can for as many people as you can.”
Minnesota Democrats did that in 2023, passing a sweeping progressive agenda with a single-vote majority in the state Senate.
Now, the problem for Democrats is figuring out what power they have to resist President Trump’s agenda without control of Congress. The party of the president in office typically suffers midterm losses, but Trump is angling to retain power in the House by having red states redraw electoral maps in their favor.
Martin supports blue states like California responding in kind, saying, “We can’t be the only party that’s playing by the rules.”
On Monday, Klobuchar — who has introduced a bill to rein in gerrymandering — also voiced her support for California’s redistricting response.
“While we wait to get (this bill) in place and put some national rules of the road in place, we will not back down,” Klobuchar said. “We will not let them set the playing field.”
Clawing back power is going to take more than redrawing maps, and Martin must find a way to unite party officials and rank-and-file Democrats who are divided over Israel’s destruction of Gaza, and deal with the party’s lackluster financial situation and lagging fundraising.
At the party meetings this week, delegates will debate the party’s position on Israel; consider which states should have the first presidential primary elections in 2028; and search for a path to mobilizing nonvoters and those who have drifted from the party.
For Hoffman, the path to regaining that support comes from resisting polarization and finding common ground — and working for the prosperity of the common person rather than the wealthiest class.
“I believe all Americans and Minnesotans want to talk to each other again without being demeaned and without the threat of violence,” Hoffman said.
The summer meetings continue in downtown Minneapolis through Wednesday.
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