Republicans in the Minnesota House of Representatives are calling for a prominent DFL lawmaker to be removed from her position as the co-chair of the House Tax Committee after an altercation that occurred Thursday night.
During a House floor session Thursday evening, DFLers spoke for hours as they attempted to suspend House rules and bring forward a gun control bill that would ban federally-licensed firearms dealers from selling many types of firearms including the AR-15.
This year, gun control legislation has been a top priority of DFLers in the wake of the June shooting of two lawmakers and the August shooting at Annunciation School.
Earlier this week, legislative leaders from both parties reached a final budget deal to conclude the 2026 legislative session. However, that deal did not include the gun control proposals that Democrats had pushed for all year.
On Thursday, Democrats spoke for hours on the House floor as they attempted to bring a major gun control bill up for a vote. Ultimately, the DFL’s effort to suspend House rules and vote on the gun control bill failed in a 67-67 party-line vote.
Following that vote, DFLers pledged to hold a sit-in on the House floor until the next floor session. The next floor session is not scheduled to start until Saturday, May 16 at noon.
After Thursday’s floor session wrapped up, an altercation broke out on the House floor involving GOP Rep. Elliott Engen and DFL Rep. Aisha Gomez. Video of that moment shows Gomez confronting Engen as shouting can be heard.
GOP Rep. Drew Roach posted a video of the altercation and said Gomez told “[Engen] to ‘go fucking kill himself.'” Engen reposted that video and said “Can confirm. Didn’t have multiple Democrat colleagues yelling at me to ‘go f’ing shoot myself’ on my bingo card…”
Can confirm.
Didn’t have multiple Democrat colleagues yelling at me to “go f’ing shoot myself” on my bingo card… https://t.co/veol1CXzxT
— Elliott Engen (@elliottengenMN) May 15, 2026
Shortly after that moment, the House GOP issued a statement which called on House DFL Leader Zack Stephenson to remove Gomez from her role as Tax Committee co-chair. The statement also called on Gov. Tim Walz to condemn Gomez’s behavior.
“This kind of behavior is unacceptable and it makes every person in this place less safe,” Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth said in a statement. “Someone willing to spew hate and accost colleagues is unfit to serve as a leader in Minnesota.”
Alpha News contacted Gomez, Engen, the House DFL, and the governor’s office for this story. However, those entities did not immediately respond to media inquiries.
In a statement obtained by Fox 9, Gomez said, “Despite claims from Republicans, multiple videos show I clearly say ‘think of them, not yourself, how about that?’ At no point did I say what the right wing media would have you believe was said. It’s a total fabrication of my actual words.”
On Friday morning, Engen stood by his prior statement, issuing a social media post which said, “It was ten seconds into me being accosted on the house floor that it was said.”
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
