Two of Wisconsin’s top LGBTQ+ lawmakers — U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan — were among more than 45 Democratic officials named in writings recovered from the vehicle of a man accused of killing Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband in what officials are calling a politically motivated act of terror.
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The suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, was taken into custody Sunday after a statewide manhunt and appeared in federal court Monday on six charges, including two counts of murder with a firearm. Local prosecutors have also announced plans to file first-degree murder charges. Authorities say Boelter fatally shot Hortman and her husband, Mark, and critically injured state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, after reportedly showing up at the homes of at least four Democratic lawmakers early Saturday.
Related: Man arrested for killing Minnesota Democrat gave anti-LGBTQ+ speech in Africa
According to law enforcement and federal prosecutors, Boelter left behind notebooks naming dozens of current Democratic officeholders. Both Baldwin and Pocan confirmed that they had been notified their names were among those listed.
“Senator Baldwin was informed by law enforcement that she was included on the alleged shooter’s list of names,” Baldwin’s communications director, Eli Rosen, said in a statement to The Advocate. “She is grateful for law enforcement’s swift action to keep the community safe and remains focused on the things that matter most here: honoring the legacy and life of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, praying for the other victims who are fighting for their lives, and condemning this abhorrent, senseless political violence.”
Baldwin, the first out gay person elected to the U.S. Senate, also responded on social media shortly after the shooting, calling the events “stunning, terrifying, and heartbreaking.”
“Political violence like this is not who we are as a country,” she wrote. “It’s on all of us to condemn and stop it at every turn.”
Pocan, a longtime out member of the House and former chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said that the U.S. Capitol Police informed his office that his name appeared on additional documents found after the initial notebook was discovered. He said he learned of the connection on Sunday and that no further details had been shared with him. “I’m appreciative that law enforcement apprehended the suspect,” Pocan said in a statement to The Advocate. “I will not back down in the face of terror. However, we as elected officials must do better to lower the temperature. That said, my schedule remains unchanged.”
Federal prosecutors have not yet identified a motive, but Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said the evidence paints a clear picture of a politically charged intent.
“Obviously, his primary motivation was to go and murder people,” Thompson said during a Monday press conference. “They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats.”
As The Advocate previously reported, Boelter’s public record shows a pattern of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and Christian nationalist ideology. In 2023, he gave a speech in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he railed against queer and transgender people, declaring that “people in America… don’t know what sex they are. They don’t know their sexual orientation — they’re confused. The enemy has gotten so far into their mind and their soul.”
That same rhetoric has now been distorted and weaponized further: in a recent appearance with right-wing pundit Benny Johnson, Donald Trump Jr. falsely claimed Boelter was aligned with the “radical transgender movement,” labeling trans people “the most violent domestic terror threat.”
Related: Trump Jr. falsely blames ‘radical transgender movement’ for Melissa Hortman assassination
In reality, trans people are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence. A 2021 study by the Williams Institute found that transgender people are more than four times as likely as cisgender people to experience violent victimization, while cisgender individuals have committed 99.9 percent of mass shootings since 2014.
The violence sent shockwaves through the Midwest and LGBTQ+ communities nationwide. Hortman, who previously served as Speaker of the Minnesota House, was known for championing LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive freedom. Her assassination has prompted vigils, condemnations, and calls for urgent federal action against political violence.
