Minnesota governor's race: Parents of slain Annunciation student endorse Klobuchar and say Demuth 'lied to us'

Ryan Faircloth, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Oct 22, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

MINNEAPOLIS — The parents of a 10-year-old girl who was killed in the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church endorsed Democrat Amy Klobuchar’s campaign for governor on Thursday and accused her Republican opponent of breaking a promise to allow a floor vote in the Minnesota House on gun safety legislation.

At a news conference in south Minneapolis, Mike Moyski and Jackie Flavin recalled inviting House Speaker Lisa Demuth into their home after the August 2025 shooting that killed their daughter, Harper, and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and wounded dozens of others.

They asked Demuth if she would allow a hypothetical bill banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines to come up for a vote on the Minnesota House floor. Demuth told them she would not block such a bill from reaching the floor, they recalled.

Months later, a gun safety package that included the bans passed the DFL-controlled state Senate and arrived in the House, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Demuth declined to bring it to the floor after pieces of the package had previously failed to make it through House committees.

“I think she lied to us in our living room,” Moyski said of Demuth. “Intentionally? I don’t know. But then continued to lie as we called it out.”

The dispute has become a flashpoint in the governor’s race, with Klobuchar and Moyski’s parents saying Demuth broke her word to a grieving family.

The episode has also underscored a sharp divide between the two candidates on gun policy, an issue that took on renewed urgency after the Annunciation attack.

Demuth has rejected the characterization of the meeting with Moyski and Flavin, saying during a televised debate with Klobuchar on Wednesday night that she only promised the bills would go through the legislative process. The bills received votes in House committees, she said.

“I said bills will be introduced, they will go through the process and they will be voted on. That happened eight times,” Demuth said. “I held to my word.”

Demuth struck a more defiant tone earlier this year, however, when she tried to win over party activists at the state GOP convention. She touted her role in blocking the gun bills, saying she “led the effort to stop Democrats from taking our guns.”

Responding to the news conference Thursday, Demuth’s spokesperson said the Annunciation shooting was a “horrendous tragedy” in Minnesota’s history. But the spokesperson said “there were seven votes during the legislative session on these issues.”

Flavin used an expletive to describe Demuth’s explanation and said she believes, based on her conversations with DFL and GOP legislators, that the Senate bill would have passed the House had it been given a vote.

Moyski noted the bills that failed to make it through the House committees were not the same as the gun safety package that ultimately passed the Minnesota Senate and did not reach a full vote in the House.

“So, yes, absolutely a lie as it pertains to that bill that finally passed the Senate,” he said.

The Moyski family’s endorsement gives Klobuchar a powerful and personal argument in the debate over gun safety. With less than two weeks until Election Day, Klobuchar is trying to sharpen the contrast with Demuth and put the speaker’s handling of the legislation at the center of the closing stretch of the race.

Klobuchar has said she would sign the Senate gun violence prevention bill that stalled in the House. Along with banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, the bill would also expand requirements for the safe storage of firearms and provide more funding for school security and mental health care.

“As governor, I will make sure that vote happens,” Klobuchar said. “I will look them in the eye, as I did in their living room, and tell them the truth.”

Demuth has said her plan to address school shootings would focus more on expanding mental health resources and extending state funding for school security to private schools. She said the state needs more resources to help people who are struggling with mental illness, so they don’t languish in emergency rooms or leave the state to receive care.

Flavin drew a contrast between her interactions with Klobuchar and Demuth, saying the Democrat showed up at a vigil that was held the night Harper was murdered and comforted their younger daughter, who was holding her stuffed animal.

“Amy noticed her and she leaned in and started talking to her and helped her feel seen and cared for,” she said.

Flavin then recalled a meeting she had with Demuth six months after they invited the Republican into their home.

“She had six months since she met with us in our living room to have some answer for, ‘What can you do to make this state safer?’” Flavin said. “And we sat there in the longest moment of silence, forever, waiting for her to have an answer, until someone said, ‘Well, do you have an answer?’ And she said, ‘I don’t.’”