Top Minnesota Democrats Call on State Senator Charged With Burglary to Resign

A Democratic state lawmaker was charged with burglary in April. Her fate could threaten a slim majority Democrats have in the Minnesota Senate.

After Minnesota Democrats took control of the State Legislature and the governor’s mansion in 2022, they passed a trove of legislation, including measures legalizing marijuana and expanding abortion rights, with the help of a mere one-seat majority in the Senate.

So when one of their freshman lawmakers, Senator Nicole Mitchell, was charged with burglary in the final weeks of this year’s legislative session, party leaders resisted an effort by Republicans to remove her immediately. Her vote, after all, was essential to passing the Democrats’ last-minute bills.

But with the Legislature adjourned for the season, Democratic leaders, too, have begun urging Senator Mitchell to step down. With control of the statehouse at stake, Democrats say they regard putting forward a new candidate on November’s ballot as the safest way to maintain control of the Senate and put a politically damaging ordeal behind them.

“Now that her constituents have had full representation through the end of the legislative session, it is time for her to resign to focus on the personal and legal challenges she faces,” Ken Martin, the chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic Party, said in a statement issued on Thursday morning.

Senator Mitchell, a meteorologist and commander in the Air National Guard, indicated through her lawyer on Thursday that she did not intend to resign. As for the burglary charge, Senator Mitchell has said that she could not publicly address specifics of the charge on the advice of her legal team, but has indicated that the allegations involve the house of a close relative who has Alzheimer’s disease.

“I entered a home I have come and gone from countless times in the past 20 years, where my son even once had his own room,” she wrote on Facebook after she was charged with burglary in April. “Unfortunately, I startled this close relative, exacerbating paranoia, and I was accused of stealing, which I absolutely deny.”