Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, are awake and recovering after being shot early Saturday, according to their nephew.

“They are both awake now and recovering. It’s going to be a long process,” Mat Ollig said in a Sunday morning interview, adding that the gunfire that struck John Hoffman “barely missed his heart.”

“Once they recover more, they will be making statements,” he said.

Hoffman and his wife were shot in their Champlin home early Saturday morning by a would-be assassin. The police have identified Vance Boelter as a suspect, and the search for him continues.

Hoffman, 60, was shot six times and his wife five times, but they are expected to make a full recovery, said Ollig.

Hoffman and his wife were attacked early Saturday by the gunman posing as a police officer who later assassinated state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.

Hoffman’s wife shielded their daughter, Hope, as the shots rang out, Ollig said.

Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, entered state politics after he struggled to obtain insurance for his daughter, who has spina bifida. He figured others were having the same difficulty.

Throughout his career in the Minnesota Senate, Hoffman worked across the aisle, Ollig and legislative colleagues said.

A former marketing and public relations director, Hoffman was elected to the Anoka-Hennepin school board in 2005 and served as vice chair before running for the Minnesota Senate. He beat incumbent Benjamin Kruse in 2012 and has represented Districts 34 and 36 covering parts of Anoka and Hennepin counties ever since.

He served as the minority whip from 2017 to 2020, and as a chair of the Human Services Committee during the last half of the 2025 session. He also was a member of committees in the Senate overseeing energy, utilities, the environment and climate.

During his 12-year tenure, Hoffman also spent time on committees crafting policy on education, family care and aging, and energy and agriculture, according to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library.

Hoffman is co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, a regional task force dedicated to conservation and water quality in the entire river basin.

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