WASHINGTON — Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is projected to win Tuesday night’s election to the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican Michele Tafoya in a race that at times appeared close in public polling but that some were skeptical was ever competitive.
Flanagan, a progressive, has been Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s second-in-command for the past eight years. She previously served in the state House for four years.
Her victory means Democrats will retain this seat in the Senate, which is currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith.
Flanagan, who is Ojibwe and a member of the White Earth Nation, also just made history as the first Indigenous woman elected to the Senate. She may end up sharing her title with Alaska Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola, if she also wins her race.
Flanagan led in public polls against Tafoya, a former sideline reporter for “Monday Night Football” who became a conservative media personality. But it was often by 3 or 4 percentage points — a margin some election analysts suggested was a sign her campaign was underperforming, given that Minnesota is a blue state and the national climate of voter anger at President Donald Trump over rising costs of groceries and gas.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report recently shifted its rating for this race from “likely Democrat” to “lean Democrat,” raising some eyebrows on whether Flanagan may actually be in trouble. Privately, though, her campaign was seeing a much bigger margin of victory in internal polling and felt fine.
Flanagan centered her campaign on fighting corruption in Washington, protecting women’s reproductive rights, boosting economic security and overhauling the country’s “broken” immigration system. The latter issue was central to this race, as Minnesotans endured months of violence and terror earlier this year amid the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge,” when thousands of federal immigration enforcement agents flooded the state in search of brown and Black people to detain, regardless of citizenship status.
“Minnesota! You just beat Donald Trump again!” Flanagan told supporters late Tuesday, a jab at the president over his past claims that he’s won this state three times when he’s never won here. “And you know what? America did too.”
She praised voters for sending a message to Trump that they’re done with his war in Iran, his health care cuts, his cuts to food assistance for children, and his “masked dudes shooting our neighbors and terrorizing our communities.” She also knocked him for prioritizing building a White House ballroom and giving tax breaks to billionaires.
“The grift stops now!” Flanagan said to cheers.