(CNN) — A special election in Minnesota on Tuesday will determine who will fill the seat of the late Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman , just over three months after she and her husband were fatally shot in what Gov. Tim Walz at the time called “a politically motivated assassination” and less than a week after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kirk’s death is the latest instance of political violence this year, following the Hortman killing in June and an arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in April. It has yet again brought tension about the increasing violence surrounding politics to the forefront of the national conversation and to the race for Hortman’s seat in the suburbs of Minneapolis between Democrat Xp Lee and Republican Ruth Bi