Peggy Flanagan wins Democratic Senate primary in Minnesota in victory for progressive flank

“For months now I have been telling you this campaign is about the many versus the money. Well guess what? The many just won,” Flanagan said to a crowd of cheering supporters at First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. “This didn’t happen because of me. This happened because of you. This happened because you said Minnesota is not for sale.”

The two-term lieutenant governor will face former sportscaster Michele Tafoya in November, setting up a critical test of the progressive platform’s appeal to general election voters in a purplish state.

Tafoya handily defeated a crowded field of Republicans, including Adam Schwarze, a former Navy SEAL and the GOP-endorsed candidate, and Royce White, a former NBA player and 2024 Republican nominee for Senate.

Tafoya is widely seen by Republicans as their best shot in years to end a 20-year losing streak for statewide office. She was able to win over Republican primary voters despite her more moderate views on abortion rights, which has been the undoing of previous statewide Republican candidates especially in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

In a statement celebrating her primary win, Tafoya previewed her campaign pitch to voters over the next three months: Democrats have failed at governing by allowing student test scores to fall, crime to rise and fraudsters to raid the state’s social service programs.

“This isn’t about red versus blue. It’s common sense versus crazy. We will not reelect politicians who let criminals steal billions and treat accountability as optional. We deserve better, and it’s time we demand better,” Tafoya said.

Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, would make history as the first Native American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate if elected. Her name in Ojibwe, as she always introduces herself, is Gizhiiwewidamikwe — “speaks in a loud and clear voice woman.”

She energized the party’s base and won its convention endorsement with a soaring progressive platform: Medicare for all, universal childcare, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Her platform makes her a fitting successor to progressive scions who held the seat before her — Tina Smith, Al Franken and Paul Wellstone — and she won the endorsements of heavyweights Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Flanagan’s biography allows her to speak personally and knowledgeably about the causes she champions. She was raised mostly by a single mother and benefited from the stability of Section 8 housing and food stamps.

After college she worked on Wellstone’s campaign and then worked for Wellstone Action, the nonprofit dedicated to carrying on his legacy by training organizers and candidates. She served on the Minneapolis School Board and led the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota before winning election to the state House and being tapped as Walz’s running mate.

For Walz, then seen as a moderate Democrat from a swing congressional district in southern Minnesota, she helped drum up enthusiasm from the urban progressive wing. With Sen. Amy Klobuchar at the top of the ticket in her bid for governor, the same dynamic could help them both.

Flanagan’s success was fueled in large part by Democratic voters’ outrage over Trump’s violent immigration crackdown. Flanagan blasted Craig for her vote to support the Laken Riley Act and pledged to “tear ICE apart” — though she’s been careful not to repeat the slogan “Abolish ICE.”

Outside his polling place in Apple Valley, 64-year-old Carson Medcalf, a hardwood flooring installer, said he voted in a primary election for the first time to vote for Flanagan because of Operation Metro Surge; his wife is an immigrant from Vietnam, and they were terrified all winter.

“I like Angie (Craig), but I didn’t like her support of ICE, and Flanagan’s a little bit more progressive,” Medcalf said.

Flanagan’s campaign prevailed despite being significantly outspent.

Flanagan claimed to not accept any “corporate PAC money” — though her campaign was boosted by super PACs — and painted Craig as a corporate Democrat beholden to taboo special interests like cryptocurrency and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The primary campaign spending is sure to be just prologue to an expensive three-month general election campaign, as a Republican victory in Minnesota could crush Democratic hopes of retaking the Senate and providing a meaningful check on the Trump administration.

Craig tried to persuade voters that she is Democrats’ best shot at beating Tafoya in the Senate, having flipped a competitive congressional district and won re-election three times. But Democratic voters in Craig’s district were about evenly split between her and Flanagan.

In a state where Republicans hold half the seats for U.S. House and often control one chamber of the Legislature, Flanagan’s success in November is not assured.

Flanagan comes with significant baggage, having been second-in-command during an unprecedented raiding of the state’s social service programs by fraudsters.

Gov. Tim Walz, who faces criticism from across the political spectrum for not acting sooner to stop the fraud, dropped his bid for a third term. It was an acknowledgment that the issue had become so radioactive that his chances to win were seriously compromised. Walz did not endorse Flanagan, despite having worked with her for the past eight years, while his wife Gwen endorsed Craig.

Flanagan has answered questions about fraud with the same refrain that puts all the blame on the governor’s shoulders.

“The governor has said that the buck stops with him and he took the lead here,” Flanagan said in an interview with the Reformer.

Madison McVan contributed reporting.