A jury in rural Detroit Lakes, Minnesota convicted State Senator Nicole Mitchell of felony burglary on Friday:
The jury deliberated for just over three hours Friday and asked no questions of the judge. Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald told reporters that he was satisfied justice was served for Carol Mitchell, Nicole Mitchell’s stepmother whose house the senator broke into.
“I’m pleased for Carol Mitchell,” McDonald said. “There’s some justice.”
Mitchell faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the burglary charge. She faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison for the burglary tools conviction.
The verdict will almost certainly change the makeup of the Senate, where Democrats currently hold a 34-33 majority. If Mitchell resigns, she’ll be replaced in a special election in what has been a solidly blue district in the past decade. If not, the Senate can expel her with a two-thirds vote, but they are not scheduled to come into session until next year. Only Gov. Tim Walz can call a special session.
You may or may not be familiar with the story: Nicole Mitchell, a former TV meteorologist, law-school graduate and retired Air Force Reserve officer, was elected to the Minnesota state Senate in 2022 - the year the Minnesota DFL seized the "trifecta", controlling the governor's office and both chambers of the legislature - representing a purple district in the east suburbs of Saint Paul. The DFL had a one-vote lead in the Senate (and four in the House), which didn't stop the DFL from jamming down a raft of social legislation that may have made Gavin Newsom blanch, turning an $18 billion surplus into a $6 billion deficit, and increasing the state budget 40%.
Then, at the tail end of the 2024 session, Mitchell was arrested in Detroit Lakes - a lake resort town in northwest Minnesota, about 150 miles from her home, after:
- Driving two hours in the wee hours of the morning
- Breaking into her stepmother's house by prying open a basement window
- Being discovered when her stepmother stepped (badda boom) on her in the dark, on the floor of her bedroom.
- All while wearing a black skullcap and black clothes and carrying a flashlight with a black sock over it...
- ...to "do a welfare check" and "get her late father's ashes".
For someone who graduated from law school and is a member of the Minnesota Bar, I was a little amazed at how badly Mitchell seemed to torpedo her defense from the first moments, essentially confessing to all the elements of First Degree Burglary in her initial statements to police.
Nicole Mitchell's logic:
— LeftistsofMN (@LeftistsofMN) July 15, 2025
"My stepmother got progressively more paranoid so I BROKE INTO HER HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO CHECK ON HER."
She should be EXPELLED from the Senate purely for her irrationality.#NicoleMitchell #mnleg@GrageDustin @nathanmhansen @WalterHudson pic.twitter.com/qNKPx4YBNZ
And she made a hash of things at trial as well:
🚨WATCH: The prosecution just called out Nicole Mitchell on her BS.
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) July 17, 2025
Prosecutor: Ms. Mitchell, I'm asking you, did you just testify that Carol Mitchell values her privacy?
Mitchell: Yes.
Prosecutor: OK, and yet you broke into her home at 4:45 in the morning.
Mitchell: Correct. pic.twitter.com/B9xLOfpY82
That being said, while First Degree Burglary can land you in prison for 20 years in Minnesota, for a first time offender with a clean record, the likely sentence is much, much lower. Rob Doar is a lawyer and Second Amendment lobbyist:
#NicoleMitchell is unlikely to see any prison time.
— Rob Doar (@robdoar) July 18, 2025
Under Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines: With a criminal history score of zero, the presumptive sentence is a stayed sentence of 21 months. The court is likely to impose a stay of imposition, resulting in probation rather than… pic.twitter.com/8AyjXjOIzs
The big issue, of course, is that Mitchell was the deciding vote, not only during the orgy of spending in 2024, but during the 2025 legislative session - where, after a series of cliffhangers worthy of Aaron Sorkin, Mitchell again wound up in a Senate with a one-vote DFL majority, as her trial continued to be delayed and she refused to resign.
So - will she resign? She told the Senate Majority Leader, Erin Murphy, she would - but there's no requirement. Eligibility to serve in elective office in Minnesota is tied to the ability to vote - and, as a result of a law for which Sen. Mitchell voted "yea", convicted felons only lose their right to vote while they are in prison. Which Mitchell will likely never see.
On top of the wave of corruption scandals that have made Minnesota a national laughingstock for the past three years, this clear ethical conflict could hurt the DFL in the 2026 elections - and some of the "moderate" DFLers in Greater Minnesota are clearly trying to distance themselves from Mitchell. In this case, it's Grant Hauschild, a Senator from rural northeastern Minnesota, a former hotbed of actual Communism, which is rapidly becoming red...
...which, as my friend and occasional Hot Air writer Walter Hudson points out, is absurd squirting of crocodile tears:
He and every other Democrat senator had multiple opportunities to eject her from office and voted to keep her.
— Walter Hudson (@WalterHudson) July 19, 2025
This feeble effort to save face and seem reasonable is transparent and ineffective. https://t.co/QJ8dvJuEoD
I've predicted that Mitchell will stay in office. The DFL might not want to risk a special election, even in Mitchell's blueish-purple district - and there may be no legal means to compel her to resign. Expulsion requires a 2/3 vote under Senate rules, meaning 45 of Minnesota's 67 Senators. The 33 Republicans would need to flip 12 of the 34 of the DFL caucus, and as Walter pointed out, they've voted in absolute lock step on everything for the past three years.
I could very well be wrong. But if she doesn't resign, you heard it here first.
