Five 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 five 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. He has been charged by state and federal prosecutors with soliciting prostitution from someone he believed to be a minor.

“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.

According to the criminal complaint, Eichorn showed up to the meeting with a condom and enough money to pay for what he thought would be 30 minutes of sex.

Court records do not yet list an initial court date for Eichorn, nor the name of an attorney.

“There is no question that these charges merit expulsion,” said Sen. Mark Johnson of East Grand Forks, the Senate Republican leader. “We owe it to the public to hold our members to the highest standards, and this violation of the public trust is so severe we must act. It is my hope that this quick resolution gives Senator Eichorn time to focus on his family.”

Minnesota’s GOP leaders had 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.

“When you are in a position of elected office, the bar is higher,” Gov. Tim Walz said. “I hope people don’t use it for political leverage but use it as an opportunity to join together that you cannot prey on children and expect to get away with it.”

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 is the ranking minority member of the Senate’s Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee and serves on the chamber’s Finance and State and Local Government committees.

His uncle, who owns a store where Eichorn once worked part-time, said he was “disappointed” in his nephew’s alleged behavior, “especially a person in his position, highly respected.”

Jerr Meinenger, a board member at the MacRostie Art Center, said: “I strongly believe that we need to have better character representing us than that.”

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.”

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