Republicans in the Minnesota Senate are calling on one of their Democratic colleagues to apologize for “abhorrent” posts she shared to social media just hours after conservative political commentator and organizer Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, is in her first term in the Minnesota Senate and previously served one term in the Minnesota House. She’s attracted attention in recent years for some of her politically bombastic commentary. She was endorsed by Gov. Tim Walz during her 2022 campaign.
On Wednesday, Maye Quade reposted two posts on the social media platform Bluesky from left-wing authors and social media influencers.
One of Maye Quade’s reposts came from A.R. Moxon, who said, “Charlie Kirk spent his life‘s work and all of his energy and time targeting out-groups while arguing for a world in which gun massacres would be easy to enact, plentiful, and inevitable, and he became famous and wealthy doing it, and we’re now not supposed to mention that because it’s not polite.”
Minnesota Democrat Erin Maye Quade shares posts trashing Charlie Kirk as a "racist" and "white nationalist" who "radicalized Trump supporters to violence" just hours after he was assassinated.
Maye Quade is a sitting state senator from Apple Valley. pic.twitter.com/CSU3zrX4mW
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) September 11, 2025
Maye Quade also reposted Wajahat Ali, who said, “You can condemn murder and political violence without whitewashing Charlie Kirk’s shameful history of hate, racism, white nationalism and promotion of dangerous conspiracies that radicalized Trump supporters to violence.”
Senate GOP leader says Maye Quade should apologize for ‘abhorrent rhetoric’
On Thursday, Senate Republican Minority Leader Mark Johnson condemned Maye Quade’s endorsement of those comments.
“This sort of rhetoric is abhorrent and Sen. Maye Quade should apologize,” Johnson said in a statement. “There should be no place in civil discussion for celebrating or embracing the brutal assassination of someone engaged in speaking to a group of college students.”
Neither Maye Quade nor communications staff for the Minnesota Senate DFL Caucus have returned requests for comment.
Several Democratic elected leaders in Minnesota offered comments expressing shock, sorrow and condolences following Kirk’s death, and condemned the act of political violence.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
