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Peggy Flanagan’s Many Crush the Money in the Minnesota Senate Primary

Corporate Dem Angie Craig outspent Flanagan by roughly four to one. But Flanagan’s ground game, and her promise to “avenge Minnesota” after ICE’s cruelty, gave her a 20-point win.

“When we work together, when we organize together, and when we fight together, we are unstoppable,” Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan told an ecstatic crowd Tuesday night, after she crushed her centrist, crafty, monied opponent Representative Angie Craig. But there was no talk of crushing anybody Tuesday; she graciously welcomed Craig’s support.

“To everyone who voted for Angie, I appreciate that you made your voice heard,” said Flanagan. “But know this, I will bust my tail to earn your votes and most importantly, your trust. I need you in this fight. Minnesota needs you in this fight.” Craig had called Flanagan to congratulate her fairly early, in an evening when it was clear from the very first votes that the progressive lieutenant governor had the edge. “Peggy’s story is one of grit, of determination and resolve.” Craig said in a speech. “To every person that supported me, I ask you tonight to support and elect Peggy Flanagan.”

Peggy Flanagan Is Running for the Senate to “Avenge Minnesota” Joan Walsh

Peggy Flanagan Is Running for the Senate to “Avenge Minnesota”

The White Earth–Ojibwe and Irish Catholic activist ran a campaign progressives everywhere can learn from. She had hundreds of volunteers who knocked on 200,000 doors, including 66,000 just to get out the vote in recent weeks. “That’s bananas,” Flanagan comments, “and the largest number of volunteers ever turned out in August.” Her campaign hosted events big and small all over the state, and in June she won the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party nomination by acclamation. She cruised to victory in large part because of her early, angry opposition to former Customs and Border Patrol head Greg Bovino’s brownshirt occupation of Minneapolis, her city. Craig never recovered from her 2025 vote for the Laken Riley Act, which liberated ICE to hunt down undocumented immigrants for even nonviolent crimes. Flanagan and her supporters grabbed the issue, and Craig refused to apologize for her vote until March, when it was too late.

This spring, Flanagan told me she wanted to “avenge Minnesota.” It turned out to be a winning message; I saw it on posters and T-shirts. Minneapolis was still a haunted, hurting place when I visited, with memorials to the murdered Renée Good and Alex Pretti still getting visitors 24 hours a day, and exhausted neighbors, who provided mutual aid to undocumented Minnesotans ranging from hot meals to childbirth help for pregnant immigrants who were afraid to seek hospital care, still fighting........

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