Outspent Two to One: How Peggy Flanagan Beat the Establishment
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Minnesota Democrats have spoken, and they told America that organizing and a message of change matters more than advertising and a message of adherence to party institutions.
Tuesday night's race to succeed Tina Smith as the Democratic choice for the U.S. Senate saw Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan defeat Representative Angie Craig by 59 percent to 39.4 percent, with 99 percent of the votes counted.
Following trends of this primary cycle , Flanagan successfully leveraged both her opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza and her refusal of corporate PAC money to cast Craig as a candidate entrenched in the Washington establishment and out of touch with the desires of voters, a narrative supported by a number of surrounding dynamics.
Craig raised $12.6 million to Flanagan’s $6.4 million, per Open Secrets. Backing Craig’s bid were the likes of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while Flanagan secured the endorsements of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
As Newsweek profiled in December, before the wave of progressive victories over the past several months, this race was very much an ideological proxy between Sanders-style progressivism and Bill Clinton-esque “Third Way” centrism. However, it also came to be a race shaped by campaign strategy as much as it was by messaging.
“Not taking corporate PAC money was one of the easiest decisions I've ever made,” Flanagan told Newsweek . “But what I also knew is that meant we had to hustle a little bit more. We needed a strong ground game.”
According to ad tracking firm AdImpact, Craig spent $9.6 million on ads while Flanagan spent $1.9 million. Instead, by investing in organizing, Flanagan said she was able to hold over 300 events in 112 communities across the state, conducting two statewide tours.
In these settings, Flanagan spoke about enacting Medicare for All, raising the national minimum wage and passing universal childcare. Flanagan believes that messaging, combined with her ground presence, helped generate early energy that propelled 40,000 people to turn up at the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party state precinct caucuses, the event where delegates are selected to attend subsequent conventions that ultimately determine the party's endorsement.
As Flanagan continued to rally across the North Star State, she said, the energy from February’s precinct caucus day snowballed heading into the May DFL convention where she ultimately secured the affiliate's endorsement, thus becoming the favorite to win the race.
“We had 30,000 doors knocked the weekend before the race, and many of those people knocking said to me they had never volunteered on a campaign prior to that day,” Flanagan said. “People care about what kind of Democrat they're electing, and this is a campaign that's been about the many versus the money.”
Flanagan will once again utilize this message in her matchup with former sportscaster, Michele Tafoya, the Republican Party’s nominee for Senate. Tafoya’s team did not respond to a request for comment, but said the following in a statement after her win: "This isn't about red versus blue. It's common sense versus crazy. We will not reelect politicians who let criminals steal billions [a reference to the state daycare fraud scandal ] and treat accountability as optional. We deserve better, and it's time we demand better."
Flanagan expects the GOP and various corporate allies who back its platform will support Tafoya. Given that, she also expects her anti-PAC message to remain salient and will emphasize the same economic populist platform that anchored her primary campaign. But while Flanagan hit Craig for voting with House Republicans, she forecast that her anti-President Donald Trump message in the general will ramp up, saying “Tafoya is going to be a ‘Yes Sir Mr. President' senator.”
The race in Minnesota will yield outside spending and attention; however, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates it as “Likely D.” Though Minnesota has played host to competitive state government races, it has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972—the longest Democratic voting streak of any in the country.
If elected, Flanagan said, she plans to work with a group of progressive Democratic senators—known as “The Fight Club” —to move the upper chamber left. One of the first issues she’ll confront is voting for a Senate leader. Flanagan has said she will not back the current Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer. Newsweek asked if she’d support progressive favorite, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. To this, she said, “I think he would be a tremendous leader, and I will cross that bridge when we come to it, but I'm a big fan of Senator Van Hollen.”
Beyond working within the Democratic Caucus, Flanagan said she would set up “99 coffees” upon moving to D.C., including with Republicans. She acknowledged those relationships as essential to realizing change. As the Horseshoe Theory of politics has shown from time to time, MAGA and progressives can be aligned when it comes to scrutinizing institutions and occasionally big business. If those Republicans are willing to ally with the wave of progressives like Flanagan being nominated, she’s hopeful the country will see positive change.
“We have folks who are getting elected who represent people and not corporations or special interests,” she said. “And I think that is the wave of elections that you've seen across the country. People are done with the status quo, are ready for fighters. I think the Washington establishment is disconnected from what's happening in the lives of everyday people, and I feel confident that we are bringing in new voices that will serve this country well.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Edward T. Cummins .
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