MINNEAPOLIS >> Democratic former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman was honored for her legislative accomplishments and her humanity during a funeral Saturday where former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined the over 1,000 mourners.

Hortman was shot to death in a pair of attacks two weeks earlier by a man posing as a police officer that Minnesota’s chief federal prosecutor has called an assassination. The shootings also left her husband, Mark, dead and a state senator and his wife seriously wounded.

“Melissa Hortman will be remembered as the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history. I get to remember her as a close friend, a mentor, and the most talented legislator I have ever known,” Gov. Tim Walz said in his eulogy. “For seven years, I have had the privilege of signing her agenda into law. I know millions of Minnesotans get to live their lives better because she and Mark chose public service and politics.”

The service

Neither Biden nor Harris spoke, but they said in the front row with the governor, who was Harris’ running mate in 2024. Biden was also one of more than 7,500 people who paid their respects Friday as Hortman, her husband, Mark, and their golden retriever, Gilbert, lay in state in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda in St. Paul. Gilbert was seriously wounded in the attack and had to be euthanized. Biden also visited the wounded senator in a hospital.

Dozens of current and former state legislators from both parties and other elected officials who worked with Hortman also attended.

Hortman, who was first elected in 2004, helped pass an expansive agenda of liberal initiatives like free lunches for public school students during the momentous 2023 session as the chamber’s speaker, along with expanded protections for abortion and trans rights. With the House split 67-67 between Democrats and Republicans this year, she yielded the gavel to a Republican under a power-sharing deal, took the title speaker emerita, and helped break a budget impasse that threatened to shut down state government.

Walz said Hortman saw her mission as “to get as much good done for as many people as possible.” And he said her focus on people was what made her so effective.

“She certainly knew how to get her way. No doubt about that,” Walz said. “But she never made anyone feel that they’d gotten rolled at a negotiating table. That wasn’t part of it for her, or a part of who she was. She didn’t need somebody else to lose to win for her.”

The governor said the best way to honor the Hortmans would be by following their example.

“Maybe it is this moment where each of us can examine the way we work together, the way we talk about each other, the way we fight for things we care about,” Walz said. “A moment when each of us can recommit to engaging in politics and life the way Mark and Melissa did — fiercely, enthusiastically, heartily, but without ever losing sight of our common humanity.”