Minnesota Democratic Senate Primary Results 2026: Angie Craig Vs. Peggy Flanagan

ST. PAUL, MN — Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Minnesota's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, a race that has become a proxy fight over the direction of the party.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has run as the standard bearer of the DFL's progressive wing.

She won the party's endorsement at the state convention and has been backed by outgoing Sen. Tina Smith, whose departure created the open race.

Attorney General Keith Ellison also urged supporters over the weekend to back Flanagan, calling her "the fighter we need in the United States Senate" in an email to supporters Sunday.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who represents the Second Congressional District, has positioned herself as the race's moderate option, skipping the endorsement fight and leaning on a fundraising and cash on hand advantage to argue she is the stronger general election candidate.

Minor candidates George Kalberer, Peter Murgic and Billy Nord are also on the ballot.

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

This is a developing story and will be updated as more results are reported. The winner will face the Republican nominee in November's general election.

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.