WASHINGTON — Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is projected to win Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Minnesota’s Senate race, defeating Rep. Angie Craig and adding to a streak of victories that progressives are seeing nationwide in primary races against moderates.
Flanagan, who has been Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s top lieutenant for the past eight years, ran on a message of “the many over the money.” Swearing off corporate PAC money, she traveled the state vowing to champion issues like “Medicare for All,” a $17 minimum wage, affordable housing, restoring Roe v. Wade, and fighting political corruption.
She re-upped her campaign rallying cry in her victory speech late Tuesday.
“For months now, I’ve been telling you this campaign is about the ‘many versus the money,’” Flanagan said to loud cheers. “Well, guess what? The ‘many’ just won.”
“And make no mistake about it: this didn’t happen because of me,” she continued. “This happened because of you. This happened because you said Minnesota is not for sale. Not now, and not ever.”
Her victory over Craig, a moderate four-term congresswoman who flipped her district from red to blue in 2018, brings an end to their competitive and at times ugly race for the Senate seat currently held by Democrat Tina Smith, who isn’t seeking reelection.
In normal times, this race might have created a fairly predictable divide between the left-leaning and centrist factions of the party. Flanagan had backing from prominent national figures like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), while Craig was endorsed by moderate Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.).
But everything went sideways late last year, when the Trump administration flooded Minnesota with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to purportedly root out criminal undocumented immigrants. Instead, thousands of federal agents swarmed the state and grabbed Black and brown people off the streets with impunity, regardless of their citizenship status or criminal record.
During their monthslong occupation, ICE officers terrorized immigrant communities, drove families into hiding, circled elementary schools looking for children to nab, violently assaulted peaceful residents and fatally shot two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
As immigration became a defining issue in their race, Flanagan hammered Craig over her January 2025 vote for the Laken Riley Act, a Republican bill that gave President Donald Trump vast new powers to detain immigrants accused of certain crimes. She also went after Craig over her vote for a GOP resolution last summer condemning an antisemitic attack that included a line expressing gratitude to ICE “for protecting the homeland.”
The attacks stuck. Craig wrote a March op-ed saying she regretted voting for the Laken Riley Act, and tried to turn the tables on Flanagan by loosely tying her to a private prison operator that runs some of ICE’s detention centers. Those attacks didn’t land the same, though.
Stephen Maturen via Getty Images
Tensions rose when Flanagan overwhelmingly won her state party’s endorsement in May, while Craig skipped the nominating convention altogether and said she didn’t want her party’s endorsement anyway. Her last-minute no-show at the event angered some of the convention’s attendees, including Democratic voters who had turned out to support Craig.
Last month, Craig faced uncomfortable accusations by a prominent Democratic state senator that she sought his endorsement in June 2025 as he was in the ICU after being shot nine times in an attempted assassination. She denied the allegations, which led to the state senator’s wife accusing Craig of lying and spurring an ugly back-and-forth on the matter.
Still, the most astounding aspect of Flanagan’s win was that she overcame an avalanche of outside money being poured into the race to tank her campaign. All told, more than $25 million was spent on this race — with most flowing from pro-Israel and crypto PACs running ads either in support of Craig or attacking Flanagan.
Craig also raised a lot more money than Flanagan. The congresswoman, who did take corporate PAC money, raised $12.7 million as of July 22, compared to Flanagan’s $6.5 million.
“Peggy Flanagan’s win is further proof that the many can beat the money,” Sen. Warren told HuffPost in a statement.
“Voters want leaders with backbones who will stand up to dark money super PACs and fight to make life more affordable,” she said. “I was the very first Senator to endorse Peggy because she’s the fighter we need in Washington.”
Late Tuesday, Flanagan and Craig presented a united front almost immediately after the race was called, urging their supporters to come together and help Flanagan win the general election in November.
“I just got off the phone with Congresswoman Craig, and she assured me she is in this fight with us,” Flanagan said at her event. “We are both proud Democrats … and we love this state. And we both know that we can’t just hand Donald Trump another Senate seat.”
In her concession speech, Craig said her top priority has always been making sure Democrats beat the Republican nominee, Michele Tafoya.
“In that spirit, I just called the lieutenant governor to congratulate her on her hard-fought victory and to offer her my full and complete support going forward,” Craig told her supporters. “To every person that supported me, I ask you tonight to support and elect Peggy Flanagan as the next U.S. senator from Minnesota.”
Flanagan will take on Tafoya in November and is in a good position to win, as Minnesota hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in 20 years. Former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, whose running mate was Walz, won this state by more than 4 percentage points in 2024.
If Flanagan does win the general election, she’ll make history as the first Native American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.