Democratic Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman said Friday that Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., sought his endorsement for her U.S. Senate campaign while he was in intensive care following the June 2025 attempt on his life.
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Hoffman said in a statement to NBC News on Sunday that a “dear and trusted friend” approached him for an endorsement twice — once while he was in the intensive care unit and the second time while he was recovering at home — and that the friend “confirmed that the endorsement requests came from Congresswoman Craig.”
Hoffman’s remarks came at a campaign event for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is also seeking the Democratic Senate nomination.
“When [Craig] said she wanted my endorsement, she was doing that during moments when our family’s story had high visibility, and that’s all you need to know that the difference is between the opponent that Peggy has and Peggy Flanagan. Because Peggy Flanagan, she checked on us out of her love for how we were doing and if we were OK,” Hoffman said at a rally Friday in St. Paul, at which Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was also present.
Asked about the allegations, a spokesperson for Flanagan said, “That’s a matter between Congresswoman Craig and the Hoffmans.”
A spokesperson for Craig said in a statement that “the claim is categorically false.”
“The Congresswoman reached out to Senator Hoffman only expressing deep sympathy from her and her wife, Cheryl, after their horrific shooting while he was in the ICU and did not reach out again until August 5, after he began making political endorsements in other races again,” the spokesperson said. “The Congresswoman continues to pray and keeps John, Yvette and Hope Hoffman in her thoughts and is grateful for their continued recovery.”
Craig denied Hoffman’s claims in an interview with KMSP-TV of Minneapolis, to which Hoffman responded in his statement.
“Let me be equally clear: I told the truth about what Yvette and I experienced,” Hoffman said about himself and his wife, who was also shot during the assassination attempt.
In text messages the Craig campaign provided to NBC News, Craig expresses well-wishes for the Hoffmans on June 14 — the day of the shooting — and she later sends an Aug. 5 message saying she “would love to talk with you about the open Senate race when you’re up to it.”
Hoffman was released from the intensive care unit on July 7.
NBC News has made attempts to contact and confirm the identity of the “dear and trusted friend” Hoffman referred to in his statement as having visited him in the intensive care unit.
Hoffman added in his statement that he “acknowledged” Craig sent a message expressing sympathy following the shooting, but he said his campaign remarks were in reference to subsequent endorsement requests “and the painful impression those requests left on our family while we were trying to survive and recover.”
“It is dishonest to give condolences and then immediately ask for endorsement like her text showed,” Hoffman wrote.
State Sen. Erin Maye Quade said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that when she visited Hoffman at the intensive care unit rehabilitation facility in late July, he shared the story about someone seeking an endorsement on behalf of Craig.
“He had mentioned that there was a friend of his that had come, who was also a surrogate and working with Angie’s campaign, and had asked him for his endorsement. We were both like, ‘Oh, it’s so inappropriate,’ and he was like: ‘I know. I think he felt really bad about doing it,’” Quade said, adding that the story has not been “secret or private” since then and that Hoffman has mentioned it to other people “at various points over the last year.”
Hoffman added in his statement Sunday that Flanagan’s contact with the Hoffmans was “different” and said she had reached out to check in on the family and “sought nothing in return.”
“My remarks were about that contrast, and I remain accountable for every word I said,” Hoffman wrote. “Congresswoman Craig may disagree with my endorsement. She may defend her campaign’s conduct. But she does not get to rewrite what my family experienced or publicly attack my honesty.”
Vance Boelter, 59, pleaded guilty last month to six federal counts in connection with the stalking and shooting of the Hoffmans, in addition to the murders of House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. Boelter was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison and an additional 40 years, the maximum sentence short of the death penalty.
