Peggy Flanagan runs away with DFL endorsement for US Senate

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan easily won the DFL endorsement for U.S. Senate on Saturday, making it through the first test of the race before she faces Rep. Angie Craig in the primary.

Flanagan ran to the stage in Rochester, Minnesota, after a roaring crowd of delegates overwhelmingly voted to support her with a voice vote at the party's convention.

"We can't just be the lesser of two evils, and we will never, ever win by being a pale shadow of our opponents," Flanagan said. "We're building a movement that demands more from our leaders in Washington."

Flanagan is running for retiring Sen. Tina Smith's seat. Adam Schwarze won the GOP endorsement for Senate on Friday, but Michele Tafoya and Royce White are continuing to the Republican primary.

Flanagan's victory was a strong signal from the state DFL Party reeling from a year shaped by political violence, Operation Metro Surge and the Trump administration's intense focus on fraud in Minnesota.

DFL activists wanting a more forceful response to President Donald Trump were increasingly expected to choose Flanagan, the more progressive candidate, over Craig in the days leading up to the convention.

As that momentum grew, Craig announced just before the convention that she would no longer seek the DFL endorsement and move right to the Aug. 11 primary instead. It was a move she claimed had been her plan all along, and she said delegates who vote for endorsements aren't reflective of the broader party.

"Most Minnesotans don't have the luxury of choosing a sub-caucus over a Saturday soccer game with their kids," Craig said in a statement after Flanagan's endorsement. "Most Minnesotans can't choose a convention over a closing shift."

Flanagan supporters said the lieutenant governor's overwhelming support at the convention is a sign of what's to come in the primary.

"I think, in general, it has gotten to be the Democratic Party is becoming more progressive, and that is influencing this Senate race in particular, said delegate Dave Garibaldi. "I think it's going on nationwide. And we're seeing it here in Minnesota after what's happened with ICE."

Flanagan has seized on Craig's 2025 vote for the Laken Riley Act - legislation allowing undocumented immigrants arrested for certain nonviolent crimes to be detained by federal authorities - as a central line of attack heading into the convention, which allowed her to consolidate the progressive base behind her.

It's a vote that cost Craig support from some Democrats, even some who had supported her in her congressional runs.

Flanangan told supporters she is "sick and tired of Democrats bending to Republicans and fighting from a defensive pose."

If elected, she vowed to raise the federal minimum wage and index it to inflation, lower the price of prescription drugs, and pass "Medicare for All."

Other changes she said she'd pursue include codifying abortion access, eliminating "dark money" in elections and "ripping ICE apart and fixing our broken immigration system."

In accepting her endorsement, Flanagan urged supporters to get more people involved in DFL politics to power her campaign.

"We're going to see even more surges of support for her after the convention," said state Rep. Leigh Finke.

Craig had no official presence at the convention, but she still had a contingent of supporters who showed up for her.

Delegate Deb Calvert said she's still behind Craig because she's worried Republicans will use the state's fraud crisis against Flanagan as a member of the Walz administration.

"I don't begrudge people their support of our lieutenant governor, but I think that she has a heavy anchor around her neck because of the fraud situation, and I think they're going to try to hang that anchor on the necks of all the Democrats in Minnesota," Calvert said.

In skipping the convention, Craig held roundtables to further her primary campaign.

But by deciding not to attend, it put some of Craig's other supporters in a difficult position.

Monica McNaughton of SD63 said she was supporting Craig before the convention, but is now undecided on whether to support the congresswoman or Flanagan after she decided not to attend.

"I'm disappointed because I think it would have been good to hear what she had to say," McNaughton said. "But I think she felt she wasn't going to change any minds."

(Briana Bierschbach and Ryan Faircloth of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.)

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