By Ireland Owens
Democratic Minnesota State Sen. Nicole Mitchell plans to resign by early August following her burglary conviction, her attorneys said Monday.
In a press release published Monday by Minnesota Public Radio, Mitchell’s attorneys wrote that she needed to wrap up “outstanding legislative projects” before resigning no later than August 4. The lawmaker’s resignation announcement comes after a jury convicted her of burglary on Friday for breaking into her stepmother’s house, the Associated Press reported.
“Senator Mitchell’s constituents deserve for her legislative projects to be finalized or ready to hand off to her successor before she resigns,” her lawyers wrote in the press release.
Detroit Lakes police arrested Mitchell in April 2024 after Carol Mitchell, her estranged stepmother, dialed 911 to report a break-in at her home, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported on July 15. At the time, Detroit Lakes police found Mitchell in her stepmother’s basement dressed in all black and carrying a flashlight covered with a black sock, Fox 9 reported. (RELATED: ‘Tim Wanted Me To Kill’: Alleged Killer Says Walz Plotted Assassinations)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – JUNE 20: A view outside the Minnesota State Capitol building on June 20, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Following the verdict, Democratic Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy had said that Mitchell told colleagues that she intended to step down if convicted, saying “and I expect her to follow through on that pledge,” the AP reported on Monday. Mitchell had faced mounting pressure from fellow Minnesota lawmakers to resign in the aftermath of her conviction on Friday, the outlet reported.
Mitchell, a meteorologist and Air Force officer, currently represents the Minnesota Senate’s 47th district, and was first elected in 2022.
Mitchell had provided the deciding vote for Democratic control of the State Senate, as the legislature enacted a plethora of progressive policies. In the last several years, “Minnesota became a high-crime state for the first time ever…student achievement tumbled even as spending on schools skyrocketed…per capita GDP in Minnesota fell below the national average, for the first time ever… increases in energy costs have far outstripped the national average” and Minnesota “joined New York, California and Illinois as a state that people of all ages are fleeing,” noted a Minnesota lawyer.
