Progressive Peggy Flanagan wins Democratic Senate primary in Minnesota

Peggy Flanagan, lieutenant governor of Minnesota, speaks to reporters on Aug. 21, 2024. Grace Widyatmadja/NPR hide caption

Progressive candidate Peggy Flanagan defeated a centrist opponent to clinch the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota, according to a race call by the Associated Press.

Flanagan, Minnesota's lieutenant governor, ran an at-times bitter campaign against Rep. Angie Craig.

With endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Flanagan was the latest in a series of progressive Democrats to win primaries as the party chooses who will lead it into the midterm elections. They scored a win last week in another Midwest state, Michigan, where epidemiologist Abdul El-Sayed won the nomination for Senate.

Flanagan, 46, noted her own childhood experience using government food assistance, Medicaid and childcare services to move into the middle class. She said she would fiercely defend the programs, if elected.

Craig had a fundraising advantage in the race and benefited from extensive external ad spending in the contest. She had endorsements from Democrats including former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc.

Flanagan homed in on Craig's previous support for the Laken Riley Act ahead of the Trump administration's federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota. Craig aimed to tie Flanagan, the second in command in state government, to fraud in state government programs.

Flanagan's campaign platform also proposed "radical change," including "ripping apart" federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and expanding Medicare to cover everyone.