GOP state Sen. Justin Eichorn arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with a 17-year-old girl

State Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, was arrested in Bloomington on suspicion of soliciting a minor for sex.

Bloomington Police led Eichorn, 40, to believe he was talking to a 17-year old girl* and then met the senator and arrested him Monday near the 8300 block of Normandale Avenue, according to a Bloomington Police Department press release.

Senate Republicans have called for Eichorn’s resignation.

“We are shocked by these reports and this alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation. Justin has a difficult road ahead and he needs to focus on his family,” Senate Republicans said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Police say they saw Eichorn arriving in the area by pick-up truck and arrested him without incident outside his vehicle.

Eichorn, who also serves as chair of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, was booked into the Bloomington Police Department jail and will be transported to the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center, the release said. Felony charges of soliciting a minor to practice prostitution are pending, Bloomington police said.

“As a 40-year-old man, if you come … 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 in the release. “I have always advocated stiffer penalties for these types of offenses … We need our state Legislature to take this case and this type of conduct more seriously.”

Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, in a statement, said the allegation against Eichorn is “deeply disturbing.”

“The felony allegation against Sen. Eichorn is deeply disturbing, and raises serious questions that will need to be answered by the court, as well as his caucus and constituents.”

Unlike her Republican colleagues, Murphy did not call Eichorn’s resignation.

Eichorn’s arrest complicates efforts by Senate Republicans to expel DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell from the upper chamber, following her arrest last year after she was alleged to have burglarized her stepmother’s home.

Although some Democrats — including Gov. Tim Walz and some of Mitchell’s colleagues — have called on Mitchell to resign, the ethics case against her has been blocked by Democrats, who say expulsion should only come after she’s received due process in the courts. Her trial is scheduled for after the session.

Republicans have said she’s brought dishonor to the institution and should be immediately expelled, even before a criminal trial.

During debate about a motion to expel Mitchell, Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, said doing so would restore integrity to the Senate.

“We don’t need the results of a criminal trial to know Sen. Mitchell’s conduct fails to meet the standards of ethical behavior that we expect from senators,” Rasmusson said in January.

That argument presumably now applies to Eichorn, as well. Having already called for his resignation, it remains to be seen if Republicans will seek an ethics case and potential expulsion of Eichorn. Expulsion of either candidate would lead to a special election. Each won their 2022 Senate races by significant margins. 

In February, Eichorn reposted an article on Facebook about attempts to expel Mitchell, saying that the “growing scandal keeps pulling focus from the Legislature’s important work. We need to end the disruption and let voters choose a new senator.”

In 2021 he objected to a bill requiring Minnesota schools to teach about sexual orientations and gender identities, saying “before you know it, they’ll be reading kids ‘50 Shades of Grey.’ This discussion is better had at a more mature age.”

Eichorn was first elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2016.

Eichorn also co-authored a bill to classify “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness.

*Correction: Due to incorrect information provided by the Bloomington Police Department, an earlier version of this story misstated the age of the girl who Eichorn is accused of propositioning. The undercover officer was posing as a 17-year old.