ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race is still months away from Election Day, but inside Republican circles the chatter has already picked a preferred opponent.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said Republicans believe voters will be forced to choose between a Republican candidate and either Minnesota Lt.
Gov.
Peggy Flanagan or Rep.
Angie Craig, D-Minn., if the Democratic primary shakes out as expected.
The primary itself is ongoing, but in Emmer’s view the matchup matters.
He argued that Flanagan would give Republicans better odds than Craig.
Emmer points to fundraising, matchup math
Emmer’s argument was blunt, and a little theatrical, the kind of line you can almost picture being repeated at a party meeting the next day.
“You’ve got the radical Left that is really upending the party,” he said, adding that it’s especially intense during the primary.
He framed Craig as a candidate with more money and suggested her numbers are in trouble against Flanagan.
Emmer said Craig “will have all the money,” but that she knows her numbers are “in the tank” against “this radical, wild, wild-eyed Peggy Flanagan.” He then pivoted to a sharper claim about energy in Minneapolis, saying that when the primary comes around, “All the crazies from Minneapolis” show up.
While he was talking, you could hear the usual in a press moment—someone shuffling papers off to the side, the faint buzz of a nearby projector screen warming up. It’s a small detail, but it made the exchange feel less like a talking-point dump and more like something said quickly, with confidence.
Republicans cite fraud overlap and policy similarities
The assessment isn’t only Emmer’s.
The Democratic contest began in February of last year, when Sen.
Tina Smith, D-Minn., said she would not seek reelection in 2026, setting off a four-way primary.
In addition to Craig and Flanagan, Billy Nord, an anti-establishment activist, and Melisa López Franzen, a former minority leader of the Minnesota Senate, also announced bids.
But Craig and Flanagan rose as frontrunners early.
Craig, a former journalist, businesswoman and current four-term U.S.
congresswoman, has $4.8 million in cash on hand, according to FEC records.
Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor for the past seven years, has $1.1 million cash on hand.
Nord has not reported contributions with the FEC, and López dropped out of the race in May of last year.
Even so, Republicans aren’t just comparing wallets.
Many Republican onlookers say both frontrunners can be described as “far-left,” but they also point to policy parallels between Flanagan and other high-profile Democrats, along with alignment with Gov.
Tim Walz—whom she has called an “incredible partner.” Walz, Emmer would likely say this is part of the political math—was hammered during his failed 2024 vice presidential bid over far-left proposals.
In the view of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that kind of overlap becomes a Republican advantage.
The NRSC has claimed Flanagan supports Medicare for All, wants to “re-imagine” policing, and attended anti-ICE protests where she called on people to “put their bodies on the line” to defend illegal immigrants from ICE.
But the argument turns especially pointed when Republicans discuss Flanagan’s tenure overlapping with revelations of up to $9 billion in fraud through government benefit programs.
The fraud allegations say money was siphoned from programs like daycare centers and health clinics, with little or no benefits returned while funding was pocketed.
The revelations made national news last year, and party leaders argue it has raised questions about how state leadership could have missed the losses’ scale.
DFL party Chair Mike Erlandson said the issue will stay in front of voters, telling the Minnesota Star Tribune he believes fraud will remain front-and-center in November.
“I don’t think there’s any way that this issue isn’t still being talked about in November,” Erlandson said.
“And anybody that was a party to it, whether you’re a legislator or Lt.
Gov.
Flanagan, if she’s the nominee, is going to have to answer questions around it.”
NRSC Chairman Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., echoed that idea in a post to X, writing that the Walz-Flanagan administration failed Minnesotans.
Flanagan’s campaign, for its part, told Fox News Digital it believes it can win a general election, pointing to Minnesota’s record of sending Democrats to the U.S.
Senate and arguing that Minnesota “hasn’t voted for a Republican statewide in over 20 years.” Alexandra Fetissoff said Craig isn’t going to make it “this is not going to be Craig’s or the GOP’s year,” adding that Flanagan is the only candidate who has “won statewide,” the only candidate not taking corporate money, and the only candidate that “hasn’t enabled Trump’s ICE.”
Emmer said he stands by his comments and believes Republicans will run a competitive race no matter the Democratic nominee.
Minnesotans, he argued, will reject “far-left, fraud-enabling radicals.” He described the Democratic field as “cop hating, open-border extremist base” while also implying that commonsense Minnesotans would be alienated.
Craig and Flanagan are set to face off in the primary on Aug.
11.
Rep.
Craig did not respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
And, honestly, that may be the part everyone is watching right now—who answers which lines first, and whether voters keep the focus where Republicans want them to.
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