Minnesota Dems Rally Behind Anti-Gun Lawmaker Facing Felony Charges

It’s been awhile since we’ve covered Minnesota State Senator Nicole Mitchell’s legal troubles, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gone away. In fact, the anti-gun lawmaker is now facing a second felony charge in connection with her alleged break-in at her stepmother’s home last year. But despite the multiple felony charges and a pending trial, Mitchell’s Democrat-Farmer-Labor colleagues in the Minnesota legislature aren’t willing to boot her from her elected position. 

This week Republicans renewed their efforts to expel Mitchell and launch an investigation, but were stymied by a party-line vote in the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct to keep her in office, at least until her trial concludes. 

Mitchell was first charged after her arrest last April for allegedly breaking into the Detroit Lakes home her late father shared with her stepmother to retrieve belongings. Officers responding to the early morning burglary call found her dressed in black in the basement.

The second felony charge was filed in connection with a crowbar allegedly discovered in an egress window.

Mitchell has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Because the second charge includes new details about the incident, Republican lawmakers argued in an updated complaint and at the meeting Thursday that further investigation and disciplinary action are warranted.

Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, said Mitchell has used Senate rules and judicial delays to dodge punishment.

“Due process is foundational to this country, but what has happened here is not due process — it’s a manipulation of procedure to prevent both the courts and the Senate from taking action to hold Sen. Mitchell accountable for her actions,” she said.

Mitchell was supposed to go trial on the charges in late January, but a judge agreed to delay her day in court until after this year’s legislative session wraps up in May. The DFL has a one-seat majority at the moment, so if Mitchell were ousted (or even unavailable for a vote because she was in court) the party couldn’t afford to lose a single DFLer on any issue, including gun control. 

Weeks after her arrest last year, Mitchell was the deciding vote in late-night legislative maneuvering that resulted gun control language getting attached to a supplemental spending bill that was approved along party lines in a chaotic floor vote where Republicans were sidelined from making objections or amendments. After Mitchell was arrested on felony burglary charges, the DFL caucus stripped her of her committee assignments and barred her from caucus meetings, but still allowed her to cast the deciding vote on dozens of bills on the Senate floor and pushed back an ethics investigation until after the session had concluded. That investigation still hasn’t taken place, and won’t begin until after her charges have been resolved. 

Anti-gunners are pushing for a mandatory storage law and “lost or stolen” legislation this session, and if the Senate ends up voting on a lost and stolen firearm bill, we could see a burglary suspect accused of stealing items from her stepmother’s home cast the deciding vote. I’m not sure if “ironic” is the right word to describe that situation, but it’s close. 

We opposed “safe” storage and mandatory lost + stolen reporting during the 2023-2024 session – and killed them then with our allies.

We oppose them now, and we’ll kill them again this session with our allies.

We’re not going to support leaving gun owners defenseless in their…

— MN Gun Owners Caucus (@mnguncaucus) March 13, 2025

The DFLers are sticking by their guns (or at least their gun control bills), and that means sticking by Mitchell as well… at least until the session is over. After that, she may very well find herself politically expendable, especially if a guilty verdict or a plea deal makes her damaged goods in her district.