Watch: Sen. John Hoffman implores nation’s legislators to not let the ‘evil of the night win’

Democratic Sen. John Hoffman urged state legislators from across the country on Monday to recommit to civility and not “let the evil of the night win” following the attempt on his life and the killing of Rep. Melissa Hortman earlier this summer.

In a taped address at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ conference in Boston, Hoffman warned of the “creeping erosion of public trust, not just in institutions but in each other.”

“In this climate, we must recommit ourselves to governance over grievance, to service over self, and to action over anger,” said Hoffman, DFL-Champlin. “Terror in the night isn’t legislative reform, and it’s repulsive. Showing up at somebody’s door in the dark pounding, screaming, with a gun, impersonating law enforcement, is not a strategy for positive change. It’s intimidation, it’s violence and it has no place in a healthy democracy.”

Hoffman was shot nine times in the June 14 attack. His wife, Yvette, was shot eight times. The suspected gunman, Vance Boelter, also shot at and narrowly missed their daughter, Hope Hoffman.

After attacking the Hoffmans in their home in the middle of the night, the gunman went to the home of Rep. Melissa Hortman and fatally shot her and her husband, Mark.

“We can never make sense of the actions of a sociopath, but we can choose to reject it, and we can govern,” Hoffman said. “What happened in Minnesota on June 14 was awful and tragic and will impact me and my family forever. But as a Minnesotan and as an American, I do know this: We can’t let the evil of the night win.”

The senator urged lawmakers to listen and to compromise when there is disagreement.

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, and House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, attended the Monday conference and paid tribute to Hortman in separate addresses.

Murphy said Hortman was a “partner and an ally and a formidable opponent. But her hallmark was her priority: to get our work done for Minnesotans. She knew failure wasn’t an option and pushed all of us to strike a deal. It’s how we make government work for people.”

She said Hortman, and many Americans, would appreciate it if politicians toned down their rhetoric. But Murphy said public leaders also need to look deeper at how “persistent, dehumanizing narratives and conspiracy theories in public discourse are serving movements and fueling the radicalization of individuals.”

Demuth said “we are living in a political environment where division, cynicism and soundbites are the order of the day.” Hortman, she said, embodied “an entirely different political reality: that respect, even across deep ideological divides, still matters.”

“Melissa’s model of leadership was to start by listening, move forward with respect and disagree with grace,” Demuth said. “She always remembered that behind every opposing vote was a fellow Minnesotan trying to make their community better in the way they thought best.