Peggy Flanagan Projected To Win Minnesota DFL Senate Primary Over Angie Craig

ST. PAUL, MN — Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is projected to win Minnesota's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday over U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in a costly race that became a proxy fight over the direction of the national Democratic Party.

Flanagan, who ran as the standard bearer of the DFL's progressive wing, will face Republican Michele Tafoya in November for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Tina Smith. Tafoya, a former sports broadcaster, won the GOP primary over Adam Schwarze and Royce White.

Flanagan won the DFL's endorsement at the state convention and campaigned with the backing of Smith, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who called her "the fighter we need in the United States Senate" during the campaign's closing days.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison also endorsed Flanagan, calling her a "pragmatic progressive" with a strong record for Minnesota families.

Craig, who represents the Second Congressional District, ran as the race's moderate option, skipping the endorsement fight and leaning on a fundraising and cash-on-hand advantage to argue she was the stronger general election candidate.

Editor's Note: Vote totals are updated live. Refresh the page to see the latest results. Numbers will populate as soon as the Minnesota Secretary of State begins releasing results.

MN DFL Senate Race: Primary Election, Preliminary Results

The race turned combative early.

In June, Flanagan accused North Star Dawn PAC, a super PAC supporting Craig, of using an AI-generated version of her likeness in a TV ad.

"My opponent's super PAC is using an AI deepfake of me to mislead voters," Flanagan wrote on social media. "They can't win with the truth, so they're resorting to lies."

The ad showed an AI version of Flanagan with a pile of cash. Craig's campaign said she does not support the use of AI in election ads.

Minnesota law restricts certain deepfakes used without consent to injure a candidate or influence an election.

Patch also reported in June that the two campaigns clashed over a CoreCivic donation tied to the DLGA, another early flashpoint in the ideological rift that came to define the race.

"Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan continues to mislead Minnesotans about the millions of corporate dollars she accepted as chair of the DLGA, including CoreCivic, an ICE detention center contractor," Antoine Givens, Craig's campaign communications director, told Patch at the time.

Flanagan's campaign pushed back.

"Peggy Flanagan is the only candidate in this race refusing corporate PAC money, and no amount of misinformation from Rep. Craig will change that fact," spokesperson Lexi Byler told Patch.

Flanagan's campaign has also pointed to her 2016 vote against a Minnesota House bill that would have authorized housing offenders in privately owned facilities, including the Appleton prison at the center of the CoreCivic dispute, as part of her record on the issue.