Progressive Peggy Flanagan Wins Minnesota Senate Primary After Anti-ICE Campaign

ST. PAUL, Minnesota —

Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota's lieutenant governor, won the Democratic primary for the state's open US Senate seat on Tuesday, defeating Rep. Angie Craig in a contest that turned into a referendum on the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, CBS News projected.

Flanagan will face Michele Tafoya, a Republican and former NFL sideline reporter who won the GOP primary, in November's general election for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat, according to CBS News. If Flanagan wins in the fall, she would become the first Native American woman elected to the Senate. She is a citizen of the White Earth Nation and already holds the highest executive office ever won by a Native woman in the country, according to CBS News.

The race became a proxy fight between the Democratic Party's establishment and its progressive wing, The Hill reported. Smith, along with Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, backed Flanagan, while Craig had support from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, according to The Hill.

Immigration crackdown defined the race

The contest unfolded after federal immigration agents flooded Minnesota in early 2026 under an operation called Metro Surge, according to The Guardian. Two Minnesota residents were killed in shootings involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and hundreds of people were deported, The Guardian reported.

Craig, who has represented a swing district south of the Twin Cities since flipping the seat in 2018, spent much of the race defending her 2025 vote for the Laken Riley Act, a federal law requiring detention of undocumented immigrants accused of certain local crimes. She said in a March op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that she regretted the vote, according to The Hill. Flanagan hammered the issue anyway, writing on social media that Craig had given ICE "new, unprecedented powers" and calling her past support for the law disqualifying, The Hill reported.

Craig, in turn, attacked Flanagan over a $250 million social welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota, arguing during an MPR News debate that the lieutenant governor had dodged accountability, according to The Hill. Flanagan's campaign has said responsibility for the scandal rests with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, The Hill reported. Walz had originally planned to seek a third term but dropped out as the fraud scandal threatened to overshadow his campaign, according to The Guardian.

A pattern of progressive upsets

Flanagan's win adds to a string of primary victories by the party's left flank this year, including Abdul El-Sayed's win in Michigan's Senate primary and several progressive and democratic socialist wins in New York and Colorado, according to The Hill.

"It's time to fight for what people actually need," Flanagan told The Guardian. "And so often I think Democrats are like: 'What do we think we can win?' Instead of: 'What are the fights that we should be picking?'"

Warren praised the outcome in a statement reported by The Guardian: "Peggy Flanagan's win is further proof that the many can beat the money. Voters want leaders with backbones who will stand up to dark money super PACs and fight to make life more affordable."

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called Flanagan "one of the most radical socialist Senate candidates on the map" and predicted Tafoya could flip the seat, according to The Hill. Minnesota has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006 and has not backed a Republican presidential candidate since 1972, The Guardian reported.

In Minnesota's separate governor's race, Lisa Demuth, the Republican speaker of the state House, defeated Trump-endorsed candidate Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and election denier, The Guardian reported. Demuth will face Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November, where Klobuchar is considered the favorite, according to The Guardian.