Remember Nicole Mitchell?
She's the former Minnesota state senator, TV weather person, holder of a law degree, and Air National Guard officer who was arrested for burgling her estranged stepmother's house in the middle of the legislative session; she'd literally driven through the night to get to her stepmother's rural west central Minnesota home and...burgle it for some reason.
It didn't go well - she was arrested, got out on bail. and awaited trial.
But wait. The story's not over.
The Senator went back to work in the Minnesota state Senate while she awaited trial. At the time of her arrest and charging, in addition to controlling the governor's office and a four vote majority in the House, the DFL held the Senate with a one vote majority - a "trifecta" that had allowed them to jam down a raft of ultra-"progressive" legislation radical enough to shame Colorado's Jared Polis, so extreme it prompted Virginia's Abigail Spanberger to say "Hold my Kombucha".
In the intervening time, the 2024 elections left the GOP and DFL with a tie in the House - meaning no purely partisan legislation could go forward. This was also about the time that the DFL's burgeoning fraud scandal was starting to break open. While Mitchell represented a suburban district that'd been voting Democrat for a few years, it wasn't so safe that the DFL could take it for granted, with control of the Senate on the line.
So an obliging series of judges delayed the trial through an entire legislative session, at a hearing that shortly followed the murder of the former Speaker of the House and her husband:
Judge Michael Fritz granted a defense motion to postpone the trial, “due to the tragic and senseless violent events of Saturday which has profoundly impacted the entire state of Minnesota and this nation.”
“Given the recency of this tragedy and unique circumstances of this case, I do not find a credible argument supporting moving forward with this trial,” Judge Fritz said.
But with the 2025 session safely behind them, the trial finally happened, and Mitchell was convicted in short order and sentenced to six months, mostly on work release:
Democrat Nicole Mitchell, 51, of Woodbury, faced a minimum sentence of six months on the felony burglary count because her stepmother was at home in the northwestern Minnesota city of Detroit Lakes when she broke in last year.
“I don’t think there is anything I can say or do that will ever be big enough to repair the harm that I’ve done,” Mitchell told the court.
Becker County District Judge Michael Fritz agreed to let Mitchell serve her 180-day sentence on work release in Ramsey County, where she lives. Her attorneys said the former broadcast and military meteorologist recently got a job working at a fast-food restaurant.
Former Democrat Senator Nicole Mitchell was sentenced to 6 months in jail for first-degree burglary, has now been seen on work release at Dunkin’ Donuts.
— aka (@akafaceUS) September 26, 2025
At least she can say she worked in the fast-food industry for real unlike Kamala Harris who lies about working at McDonalds. pic.twitter.com/x0HhnkZCFR
But wait. The story's still not over.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "Americans love Second Acts". Fitzgerald lived in Saint Paul for a while - and if he were living in Minnesota today, he'd likely add "...for Democrats".
Nicole Mitchell is exploring getting back into politics.
Embattled former DFL state Sen. Nicole Mitchell appears to be taking steps toward another run for office.
"Embattled"? She "embattled" herself.
The moves come less than a year after the Woodbury Democrat resigned following her conviction in a high-profile felony burglary case...A disclosure on NicoleMitchell.org now reads "Prepared and paid for by Nicole Mitchell for Woodbury City Council."
But wait. The story's still, still not over.
Well, OK - it might be. We'll see how the city council election goes.
Shiny new quarter says she wins.
