Four things to know about the Minnesota senator accused of soliciting a teen for sex

A Minnesota senator was jailed Monday after he allegedly arranged to meet with someone he believed was a teenage girl for sex, police said.

Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, was actually speaking with a police detective. Here are four things to know about him and the case:

Eichorn was arrested by Bloomington police Monday after he arranged to meet up for sex with someone he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said Tuesday. A detective posing as a 16-year-old girl arranged to meet him near the 8300 block of Normandale Boulevard.

Eichorn was jailed on suspicion of soliciting a minor for sex after he arrived in a pickup truck. Charges are pending.

“As a 40-year-old man, if you come to the Orange Jumpsuit District looking to have sex with someone’s child, you can expect that we are going to lock you up,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said.

Minnesota’s GOP leaders called on Eichorn to resign soon after his arrest was made public.

“Given the seriousness of the charges, Senator Eichorn should resign,” House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, and Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said in a joint statement. “While he is entitled to due process, we must hold legislators to a higher standard.”

The Senate Republican Caucus similarly issued a statement calling on Eichorn to step down, saying his “alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation.”

“Justin has a difficult road ahead, and he needs to focus on his family,” Senate Republican leaders wrote.

If Eichorn resigns or is expelled, the DFL’s slim 34-33 majority would expand.

Eichorn was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2016 after an unexpected win in a traditionally DFL district. The Senate seat came after Eichorn mounted an unsuccessful bid for the state House in 2014, when he lost the District 5B race to DFL Rep. Tom Anzelc.

Eichorn initially represented District 5 in the Minnesota Senate before redistricting in 2022. District 6, which Eichorn now represents, includes parts of Beltrami, Cass, Crow Wing, Hubbard and Itasca counties.

Eichorn, 40, lives in Grand Rapids and has a wife and four children, according to his legislative biography. He chairs the Senate’s Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee and serves on the chamber’s Finance and State and Local Government committees.

During his time in the Senate, he has supported bills that set harsh penalties for people who have their pets pose as service animals, proposed $200,000 in state funding for competitive fishing and legislation that would have allowed Minnesota high schoolers to earn one-third of their credits at religious schools.

“We talk about local control. In my mind, the ultimate local control is the family unit,” Eichorn said during an Education Committee hearing in 2017.

Eichorn came under fire in May 2020 when he tweeted a video of himself referring to a homeless camp as a “nice little tent city” as he pushed Gov. Tim Walz to open the state’s campgrounds in the early days of the pandemic. He deleted the tweet and in a later post said it may have “missed the mark.”

This week, he made headlines as one of five Senate Republicans who sought to classify “Trump derangement syndrome” as a mental illness.

Paul Walsh, Allison Kite and Ryan Faircloth of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.