Man who pleaded guilty to killing top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband to be sentenced

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota man who pleaded guilty to killing a top Democratic lawmaker and her husband is set to be sentenced in federal court Thursday.

Vance Boelter, 59, agreed to plead guilty in June, almost a year after the Minneapolis-area attacks when he stalked and killed House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and critically wounded state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

Boelter pleaded guilty to six counts so federal prosecutors would not seek the death penalty; instead, he agreed to serve two consecutive life sentences, plus 40 years. Prosecutors and federal defenders said it was the maximum sentence he could be issued short of the death penalty.

Boelter admitted in court that he spent months identifying and stalking his targets, before driving to their homes in the middle of the night, disguised as a police officer, with the intention of killing them.

The killings sparked the largest police search in state history, causing panic, fear, and increased security and precautions. Elected officials faced escalating threats and political polarization that many worried would lead to more violence and attacks.

A presentencing memorandum submitted to the federal court in late June was sealed as of early Thursday, along with objections to that report.

But prosecutors and Boelter's defense team also submitted letters detailing their positions on the potential sentence.

“Vance Boelter committed an assault on democracy,” prosecutors wrote in their filing. “He shattered the lives of his victims. He terrified Minnesota’s public servants. He threatened police and pointed a gun at an officer. He viciously attacked the organs of Minnesota’s representative government.”

Boelter went to Hortman's home, wearing a tactical uniform and mask, about 3:30 a.m. on June 14, 2025. He rang the doorbell while shouting he was a police officer doing a welfare check, according to court documents.

Mark Hortman answered the door. Boelter gave him a fake name and badge number before requesting he summon Melissa Hortman to the door as well. He shot Mark Hortman multiple times before pushing into the house and shooting the lawmaker as she fled upstairs. Melissa and Mark Hortman were killed.

Boelter had already visited the Hoffmans' home that night, shooting and critically injuring the senator and his wife, according to police and court documents. Court documents said Boelter also went to two other lawmakers' houses that night. In one instance, no one answered the door, and in the other, Boelter was spooked when a police officer approached him in his car believing he was another officer.

Boelter also faces state charges, including two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, impersonating a police officer and animal cruelty. The Hortman family’s golden retriever was gravely injured in the shootings and had to be euthanized. Hoffman and his family filed a personal injury lawsuit against Boelter in April.

In his letter on the proposed sentencing, Boelter's attorney requested that he be sent to a federal prison in Florida, that he be allowed to work so he can pay restitution, and that he be allowed to participate in therapy and other in-person programs. The letter said Boelter had spent decades in food service and had experience in a handful of other fields.

“Mr. Boelter understands that his impending sentence means he will spend the rest of his life in prison. But the skill set he maintains from his diverse employment history makes him a strong candidate for programming, employment, and other opportunities at the Bureau of Prisons,” federal defender Manny Atwal wrote.

Lauer reported from Philadelphia.

FILE - Members of law enforcement agencies investigate near a vehicle suspected to belong to shooting suspect, Vance Boelter, June 15, 2025, in Belle Plaine, Minn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

FILE - Bullet holes mark the front door of the house of Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife who were shot earlier in the day on June 14, 2025, in Champlin, Minn. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, File)

FILE - Armed FBI agents search for an active shooter, sweeping a neighborhood adjacent to the home of Minnesota DFL State Representative Melissa Hortman, in Brooklyn Park, Minn., June 14, 2025. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP, File)

FILE - Pictures of Mark and Melissa Hortman are set up inside the sanctuary at the Basilica of St. Mary's during funeral services for Mark and Melissa Hortman in Minneapolis, Saturday, June 28, 2025. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - This photo made available by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office shows Vance Luther Boelter, the man charged with killing the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and her husband, and wounding a state senator and his wife, as he was arrested on June 15, 2025. (Ramsey County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — When Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, began her campaign last year, candidates weren't talking about — or hearing about — data centers.

But with barely three months until November's contest, the perceived threat to rural life, ranchland and dwindling water supplies could become a defining issue for her longshot challenge to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, dividing conservative rural areas that have traditionally served as a counterweight to Democrats' urban strongholds.

The backlash to energy-guzzling server warehouses that power artificial intelligence is also shaping other statewide campaigns from Arizona to Ohio to New York, and even giving Democrats a glimmer of hope in Texas, where Republicans have dominated for three decades.

“There is this little issue that I recently started hearing about that I wanted to tell you about, in case you don’t know,” Hinojosa quipped to a Democratic Party-organized crowd of about 160 seated on fold-out chairs at an Amarillo social club in Texas' panhandle. “It’s this issue of data centers.”

The crowd booed, and she went on: “They are owned by the richest men in the world. We’re all footing the bill. There are no rules. It is the wild west of data centers.”

The fast growth of massive data centers has already upended races for local offices across the country, often uniting conservatives and liberals in revolting against projects in their midst.

People don't like the secrecy surrounding the projects or the prospect of air, noise, water and light pollution. They fear electric bills going up, wells going dry and losing open space, farmland or forest.

Now the ripple effects have spread to top-of-the-ticket races, where incumbents and challengers are trying to show that they hear an angry electorate.

In Ohio, Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown aired a television advertisement attacking Republican U.S. Sen. John Husted as the "face of data centers in Ohio" as people gather signatures for a statewide referendum to outright ban their construction.

In Wisconsin, a Democratic candidate for governor, Francesca Hong, is pledging to “tax the rich, fund our schools and stop AI data centers” as she campaigns for her party's nomination in a crowded primary.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is facing heat from some voters who feel like he's been too welcoming to tech behemoths. Sam Burleigh, a Democrat whose rural community is fighting off data center projects, accused Shapiro of “allowing these data centers to come in and take over acres and acres of prime farmland.”

Any political unrest may be felt most acutely in Texas.

The state is poised to overtake northern Virginia as the largest global data center market by 2030, according to a report by commercial real estate giant JLL. It has lots of land, lots of energy and a friendly regulatory environment under Republican leadership.

In rural west Texas and its panhandle, gargantuan data centers are under construction, including one near Amarillo touted as the world's largest. Some come with designs for natural gas-fired turbines to power them.

Rumors are flying about others popping up — Google, which is building four data centers in northwest Texas, sponsored moderated conversations with officials and business elite in Lubbock and Amarillo in recent weeks — and it is sowing an outcry across small cities, tiny towns and sprawling ranches where people vote overwhelmingly Republican.

Google says its investments are advancing American innovation, fortifying cybersecurity and boosting energy capacity, while President Donald Trump has made data centers a top priority to help the U.S. compete against China for AI superiority.

But tech giants and developers can be secretive about their plans, making it impossible to know what will be built or what sort of pollution they'll create, critics say. Some worry that data centers will destroy rural Texas' low cost of living and sully sunsets and sweeping views that stretch toward the horizon.

Others say construction and an influx of workers are already causing havoc for ranchers and towns, driving up rents, snapping up farmland, illuminating the night sky, clogging roads and turning parts of rural Texas into industrial zones.

Democrats are prominent among the data center critics, but so are Republicans, including Texas' sitting agriculture commissioner, Sid Miller. They say there are many more Republicans who are quieter because they fear publicly opposing their governor and party.

“They're upset with Greg Abbott,” said Suzanne Bellsnyder, a former Republican activist from Spearman who writes a syndicated column that advocates for rural Texas. “Whether that translates into voting against him, I don't know.”

Abbott has aggressively advocated for big projects in Texas and, in November, he helped make Google's announcement of a $40 billion investment there, saying “Texas is the epicenter of AI development.”

Compounding that, Texas counties don't have zoning authority — precisely the local land planning authority that communities around the country are increasingly using to fight off data centers.

Abbott seems to recognize that data centers are dividing his base. In recent weeks, he ordered regulators to take steps to ensure Texans weren't paying higher electricity bills because of data centers and promised to push a legislative agenda next year to impose regulations on data centers.

At an East Texas campaign stop, Abbott said that includes taking away the state's billion-dollar-plus-per-year tax break and preventing data centers from being built in “rural Texas neighborhoods.”

Hinojosa and others derided Abbott's words about “rural Texas neighborhoods” as meaningless — "doublespeak that makes no sense to anyone," Hinojosa said — and lacking urgency or seriousness.

“Now we have this gold rush of data centers in our communities," Hinojosa said in an interview, adding that “people want a say, and I think that’s fair.”

As governor, she said she'd block a permit for a data center if it wasn't a good deal for Texans or residents hadn't gotten a say in the matter.

Abbott's campaign season turnabout on data centers doesn't seem to have soothed many.

Of great concern is the prospect that data centers will consume massive amounts of water and worsen drought conditions for ranchers and farmers in a state where water shortages already crippled the sugar cane industry.

“Oh, I guarantee you, it's on everybody's mind,” said Giles Dalby, a cattle rancher and a Republican county commissioner in west Texas.

Dalby, who raises Angus and Brangus cattle on ranchland that's been in his family for 125 years, pointed to fast-growing cities where water authorities have had to go to greater lengths to procure water, including the “water wars” between San Antonio and ranchers several years ago.

Texas is increasingly steamrolling over landowner rights in the quest for public water, Dalby said, and that could mean that data centers get in line ahead of ranchers when shortages or rationing worsen.

Clayton Tucker, a rancher and the Democratic nominee for state agriculture commissioner, said his campaign events are consumed by talk of data centers. It doesn't matter whether he's meeting with Democrats or Republicans.

“This is the most cross-partisan issue I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tucker said.

Meanwhile, protest groups are springing up, including one in Lubbock that is led by Republicans. The founders, Stephen Sanders and Hallie Bertrand, like some other Republican opponents of data centers, say it's possible or even certain they won't vote for Abbott, although they may not necessarily vote for Hinojosa.

There is still time for Abbott to push through major legislation before the election and “be a hero,” Sanders said.

The big question is whether enough rural voters will turn against Abbott to give Hinojosa a shot. It’s hard to tell, Bertrand said, especially when some know nothing about the issue.

“They'll just hit that button, Republican all the way down,” Bertrand said. "But I think it’s a step towards something that we have not seen in Texas in a long time, with people on the right switching to the left. Or scooting a little closer to the middle, maybe."

Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter

Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner Clayton Tucker speaks at a rally, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas. (AP Photo/Justin Rex)

A supporter holds a sign for Democratic candidate for Texas governor Gina Hinojosa while she speaks during a rally, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas. (AP Photo/Justin Rex)

Attendees listen as Democratic candidate for Texas governor Gina Hinojosa speaks at a rally, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas. (AP Photo/Justin Rex)

The site of a future data center being built near Abernathy, Texas, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Hale County, Texas. (AP Photo/Justin Rex)

Democratic candidate for Texas governor Gina Hinojosa, third from the left, listens to Stephen Sanders, right, during a roundtable discussion on data centers, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas. (AP Photo/Justin Rex)