In this moment of mourning, as we are still grappling with the senseless political violence that claimed the life of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, we take great pride in shining a spotlight on the ways that The Joyce Foundation and several of its Minnesota-based grantee partners, were privileged to partner with her over the years on policy issues that have had lasting impact in the lives of all Minnesota citizens.
Joyce invests in evidence-informed public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in six Great Lakes region states, including Minnesota. As a result, we came to know Rep. Hortman well through our intersecting interests in environmental and gun violence prevention policy. She was an effective, long-term advocate in both areas.
On the environment, Rep. Hortman was the key legislative leader who shepherded Minnesota’s landmark climate and clean energy bill in 2023. With the passage of that legislation, Minnesota became the 22nd state in the nation to commit to 100 percent carbon-free electricity, requiring the state’s investor-owned utilities to be fully carbon-free by 2040. We noted the Minnesota Legislature’s passage of that groundbreaking measure, and the work of our grantees, whose evidence-based advocacy influenced the bill’s passage, in our Policy Watch feature. Our grantee partners at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy said Rep. Hortman’s leadership on clean energy was “transformational and historic.”
Rep. Hortman believed in science and made common sense policy decisions rooted in scientific evidence. Notably, before becoming House Speaker, Rep. Hortman chaired the Minnesota Legislature’s House Energy Committee. In that role, she worked with a coalition to enact Minnesota’s solar energy standard and community solar laws in 2013. Those efforts, as well as her work on the landmark 2023 legislation that secured $1 billion in funding to transition to clean energy, will help reduce climate pollution and prepare communities for the impacts of climate change. Our grantee partners at Fresh Energy said Rep. Hortman’s climate work was key in “transforming a nascent industry into a pillar of our clean energy transition that continues to grow today.”
Additionally, before ascending to the Speakership, Rep. Hortman was active in a Joyce-supported national network of state legislators working to protect the environment, collaborating with and gleaning ideas from colleagues from other states, and sharing her lessons from work on solar power and other environmental issues in Minnesota. Rep. Hortman’s influence extended beyond the U.S., as she participated in multiple United Nations climate meetings, including the landmark 2015 COP-21 conference in Paris. This blog post from our grantee partners Climate Generation offers a glimpse of her work in Paris, meeting with a delegation of Minnesota teachers who were COP-21 observers.
In addition to her work on climate, Rep. Hortman also leaves a strong legacy of advocating for sensible gun reform. She was a bold and vocal advocate for more stringent, common-sense gun laws, and through strategic leadership and partnerships, helped shepherd the most significant changes to gun policy in Minnesota in decades.
She worked successfully on bipartisan police reforms in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. And in 2023, Rep. Hortman co-authored bills that became law requiring background checks on gun sales and establishing extreme risk orders allowing temporary disarming of people who pose a danger to themselves or the public. She also secured $71 million for Community Violence Intervention programs. Our grantee partners at The Trace wrote a comprehensive profile on Rep. Hortman and her record on gun violence prevention policies here.
In a 2024 interview with the Minnesota Reformer after successfully passing gun reform legislation, Rep. Hortman said: “We clearly have a gun violence problem in this country, and there are things we can do about it, and we did them.”
Rep. Hortman’s work was principled and rooted in evidence-based policies to facilitate good governance and safer communities for all Minnesotans. We’re grateful that our ethos and strategies aligned on important issues like the environment and gun violence prevention, and that so many of our grantee partners in Minnesota worked with her to bring critical legislation in these areas to life.
May Melissa Hortman’s work on behalf of the people of Minnesota, and her tragic and untimely sacrifice – along with her husband Mark – be a clarion call for civil discourse, and wholesale condemning of political violence everywhere. Public servants like Rep. Hortman are needed now more than ever, and we don’t need the scourge of political violence to make them afraid to serve.
About The Joyce Foundation
Joyce is a nonpartisan, private foundation that invests in evidence-informed public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.