GOP Lawmaker Who Said Liberals Are Attacking 'Our Way of Life' Arrested After Allegedly Soliciting Sex from Minor: Police

Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn was arrested after allegedly trying to meet a teenager for sex, according to police.

Eichorn, 40, was arrested on Monday, March 17, after “allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution,” according to a press release from the city of Bloomington, Minn.

The politician’s arrest was part of a police sting in which Bloomington Police Department detectives communicated with him under the disguise of a 17-year-old female. 

A detective then arranged to meet in person with the senator, who allegedly arrived at the location in a pickup truck, according to the release. Authorities say he was “arrested without incident” and will be held at the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center.

Eichorn faces felony charges of soliciting a minor to practice prostitution and is in custody, per the Bloomington Police. The incident is still under investigation.

“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 in a statement.

Hodges said he advocates for “stiffer penalties for these types of offenses,” adding, “We need our state legislature to take this case and this type of conduct more seriously.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

On Tuesday, March 18, Minnesota GOP Chairman Alex Plechash called for Eichorn to resign in a statement on X.

“As Republicans, we hold elected officials to a higher standard,” Plechash wrote. “While Senator Eichorn is entitled to due process, the seriousness of these charges warrants his resignation. Public trust and accountability must come first.”

Eichorn is serving his third term in the Minnesota Senate after having first been elected in 2016, according to the Senate website. He won reelections in 2020 and 2022.

A campaign ad from 2020 shows him naming his accomplishments as increasing funding for school and lowering healthcare costs, while also claiming that family values are “under attack” by Democrats.

Following a clip and photo of Eichorn with his wife and four kids, he says to the camera, “Every Sunday night during session, I say goodbye to my wife and kids and make the three hour trek to St. Paul to fight for our way of life because day after day it is under attack from metro liberals.”

More recently, Eichorn was one of five authors who proposed a bill to label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — a sarcastic term to describe President Donald Trump’s critics — as a mental illness. 

The authors of the bill define the term as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies” of Trump.

The bill lists symptoms as “Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology” in the president’s behavior.

Examples of said syndrome, per the authors, include “verbal expressions of intense hostility” against Trump and “overt acts of aggression and violence against” those who support him.