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peggy flanagan
Peggy Flanagan Unloads on GOP Rival for Saying ICE Treated Kids ‘Really Well’ During Minnesota Siege
"This agency is completely out of control," said the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Minnesota.
Aug 13, 2026
Fresh off a resounding US Senate primary victory, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on Thursday castigated her Republican general election opponent for praising federal immigration agents' treatment of children during their siege of Minneapolis.
During an interview on MS NOW, Flanagan highlighted GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya's support for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose violent operations in the Twin Cities area last winter resulted in widespread protests, including an unprecedented one-day general strike.
"Michele Tafoya, my Republican opponent, she used footage of ICE in the streets of Minnesota during her launch video, and recently said... 'ICE treated children really, really well,'" Flanagan said. "Tell that to Liam Ramos or to the children who have been separated from their parents. This agency is completely out of control."
Peggy Flanagan: "Michele Tayofa, my Republican opponent, used footage of ICE in the streets of Minnesota in her launch video, and recently said 'ICE treated children really really well.' Tell that to Liam Ramos or to the children who have been separated from their parents." pic.twitter.com/Vy9kKpYZkq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 13, 2026
Five-year-old Liam Ramos in January was abducted by ICE agents during his walk home from school and sent along with his father, an Ecuadoran asylum seeker, to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where family members said the child grew sick from eating spoiled food. In February, Ramos and his father were released and sent back to Minnesota.
Elsewhere in the interview, Flanagan was asked about Republican attacks on her and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for purportedly not doing enough to prevent healthcare fraud in their state, and she quickly turned the tables back on Tafoya and President Donald Trump.
" Republicans are going to run against every Democrat on fraud, because they want to distract from what's happening under the most corrupt president we've ever seen," she said. "They want to talk about fraud, they have to talk about the fact that, right out of the gate, Donald Trump got rid of 17 inspectors general whose whole job it is to police fraud at the federal level."
Peggy Flanagan: "Republicans are going to run against every Democrat on fraud, because they want to distract from what's happening under the most corrupt president we've ever seen ... Michele Tayofa and Republicans up and down the ballot are going to have to answer for that. The… pic.twitter.com/dyMqisM1AH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 13, 2026
"He's pardoned 70 white-collar criminals who have stolen billions of dollars in Medicaid and Medicare," Flanagan continued. "And every day, this guy is making money hand over fist from the Oval Office, from his... cryptocurrency, through hundreds of millions of dollars in insider trading. And Michele Tayofa and Republicans up and down the ballot are going to have to answer for that. The grift has to stop."
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'Minnesota Is Not for Sale': Peggy Flanagan Wins Senate Primary, Defeating Millions in Dark Money
"For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many vs. the money," said Minnesota's lieutenant governor. "The many just won."
Aug 12, 2026
Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota's lieutenant governor, won her state's Democratic primary for the US Senate on Tuesday by an overwhelming margin, defeating US Rep. Angie Craig and outside groups that spent tens of millions of dollars trying to influence the race.
"For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many vs. the money," Flanagan said in her victory speech. "Well, guess what? The many just won."
Flanagan's platform includes Medicare for All, expanding Social Security, and dismantling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after federal agents unleashed by the Trump administration killed two people in Minnesota earlier this year. Flanagan was endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), whose seat the Minnesota lieutenant governor is running to fill.
Outside organizations poured more than $20 million into the race to support Craig, a centrist Democrat and crypto industry champion. A large chunk of Craig's financial support in the US Senate primary came from North Star Dawn PAC, a shadowy organization funded by the Civic Progress Fund Inc., a group that does not disclose its donors.
"This happened because of you," Flanagan said of her primary win. "This happened because you said Minnesota is not for sale."
Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, celebrated Flanagan's victory in a statement late Tuesday, saying the results "once again reinforced what we’ve seen all across the country this election cycle: Voters want candidates to reject corporate PAC money and not be beholden to special interests."
“Lt. Gov. Flanagan ran on independence, accountability, and putting working families first—and beat nearly $20 million in outside spending against her," said Muller. "She understands that a government captured by special interests can’t deliver for everyday people. Her campaign demonstrated the power of standing firmly on principle, building trust with voters, and putting people at the center of every decision, and Minnesotans rewarded that vision."
I'm running for U.S. Senate to:
Get Big Money out of our politics.
End prior authorization.
Pass Medicare for All.
Rip ICE apart.
Raise the wage.
Deliver universal childcare.
Secure the right to repair.
Block the bombs.
Save Social Security.
Deliver for the people of Minnesota.
— Peggy Flanagan (@peggyflanagan) August 11, 2026
Flanagan will face sports reporter Michele Tafoya in November. Richard Carlbom, chair of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, mocked Republicans' choice of "Michele ‘take one less trip to Starbucks’ Tafoya as their candidate for the US Senate," referring to the GOP candidate's call for Americans to "just try to be patriots" and endure economic pain from President Donald Trump's Iran war with "a stiff upper lip."
"Tafoya is out of touch with the people of Minnesota and has aligned herself with Donald Trump on everything from abortion bans to tariffs," said Carlbom. "Michele Tafoya’s agenda consists only of saying yes to Donald Trump and yes to higher costs for working people. Minnesotans will reject her in November."
Flanagan's win in the key battleground state came as democratic socialist Francesca Hong suffered an upset loss in neighboring Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary, falling narrowly to establishment favorite David Crowley in a contest that drew national attention.
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Can Flanagan in Minnesota and Wisconsin's Hong Continue Progressive Wave in Midwest?
The Minnesota official took aim at the "special interests" funding her opponent's campaign ahead of the election, while Francesca Hong rejected claims that her priorities are too "extreme" for Wisconsin.
Aug 11, 2026
As the Democratic establishment and the corporate media continue to grapple with the results of last week's Senate primary in Michigan, which Abdul El-Sayed won after campaigning on Medicare for All, ending corporations' grip on elections, and investing in the social safety net instead of foreign wars, two more high-profile Midwestern races on Tuesday may provide more answers about the direction in which the Democratic base hopes to push the party.
In Minnesota, progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is facing US Rep. Angie Craig in the Democratic Senate primary, while in neighboring Wisconsin, democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong's (D-76) closest opponent is Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.
As in Michigan, where Democratic operatives have insisted that Rep. Haley Stevens would have been a better bet to win against Republican candidate Mike Rogers, supporters of Craig claim the congresswoman is more "electable" than Flanagan, who supports Medicare for All, an end to "offensive weapons sales to Israel," and publicly financed universal pre-kindergarten.
“Electability is probably the No. 1 factor,” Joe Radinovich, a Democratic strategist who views Craig as the better candidate to face a Republican in the November midterms, told The New York Times.
But a number of Craig's positions and ties suggest her backers may be working with a flawed understanding of what makes a candidate appealing to voters in 2026, with nearly half of Democratic voters in swing districts last year telling Upswing Strategies that they would avoid supporting a candidate who was funded by the pro-Israel lobby, 78% of Democrats saying in a poll in December that they supported Medicare for All, and half of Americans telling YouGov last month that they believed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should be abolished.
Craig has received major support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in the past, but says she asked the powerful pro-Israel group not to donate to her this year as Americans sour on US military support for Israel, which, with the backing of the Biden and Trump administrations, has slaughtered more than 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. AIPAC has continued hosting fundraisers to boost Craig's campaign indirectly.
Craig has refused to call Israel's attacks on Gaza a genocide, while Flanagan has joined top human rights organizations and Holocaust experts in doing so, saying that “American taxpayer dollars should not be used to fuel the horrific violence and suffering that’s being experienced there."
The congresswoman is also out of step with the majority of Democrats on healthcare, pushing for legislation that would "build on" the Affordable Care Act instead of establishing a national healthcare plan, and on immigration policy. She was the only Democrat in Minnesota to support the Laken Riley Act, which gave ICE broader power to detain immigrants. Although Craig initially defended her vote, she expressed regret in March, after two Minnesota residents were killed by federal immigration agents who were part of President Donald Trump's crackdown in the state.
Flanagan has not joined the specific call to abolish ICE, but told The New York Times: “Whatever word you want to use, it can’t exist like this anymore. We have to rip ICE apart and start over.”
Outside groups, including super political action committees (PACs) representing cryptocurrency interests, have poured roughly $20 million into the effort to elect Craig, a co-sponsor of the CLARITY Act. The bill would split regulation of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the industry-friendly Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Flanagan on Monday said she was not intimidated by the special interests that, as she said "think they can buy this Senate seat."
The lieutenant governor has been endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), among others, as well as a number of labor unions, the anti-corruption group End Citizens United, and the advocacy group Indivisible.
Some recent polls have shown Craig with a small lead, while some internal surveys by Flanagan's campaign have shown the lieutenant governor several points ahead of her opponent.
Sanders predicted "a tight race" on Sunday in an interview with Margaret Brennan of CBS News' "Face the Nation."
"I hope very much that Peggy wins," said the senator. "I think what we’re seeing in Minnesota, Margaret, in Michigan, and all across this country, is that people understand that we’re living with an economy that is rigged. You have working families, 60% of our people, living paycheck to paycheck. People can’t afford groceries, housing, healthcare, basic necessities of life."
In Wisconsin, Sanders, Warren, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are among the high-profile progressives who have declined to wade into the race and endorse Hong, who has consistently led by double digits in polls since February.
The gubernatorial candidate has distanced herself recently from what she called "bad takes"—a call in 2020 to "cancel Thanksgiving" and support for abolishing law enforcement.
“I will not abolish the police," said Hong in a debate in July. “I want to focus on stopping violent crime and giving law enforcement the resources and the training that they need but ensure that we are also holding accountable law enforcement that does not follow the law."
But Hong has won the support of Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), with Omar calling her a "true champion for working families" and highlighting her support for broadly popular proposals like universal childcare, Medicare for All, and guaranteed paid leave.
Opponents of Hong are striving to attach the word "communism" to her political priorities—a clear sign, said Gustavo Gordillo of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter in New York City recently, that "democratic socialism is not the scary word it used to be" for voters.
When asked by Fox News on Tuesday about alleged "fears that democratic socialism could turn into communism," Hong dismissed the idea, echoing Ocasio-Cortez's recent comment that "we can't even raise the minimum wage" in Congress.
"This is a state where we still have a $2.33 tipped minimum wage and $7.25 minimum wage," said Hong. "I think it's gonna be hard to turn that into socialism soon, but what we can do with this campaign is make sure we fight for policies that put working-class people first."
She added that she rejects claims that she is too "extreme" to win the general election in November due to her support for policies like taxing the rich and abolishing ICE, countering that Republican primary front-runner Rep. Tom Tiffany has displayed extremism by denying the 2020 election results and voting to keep files regarding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a former associate of Trump, hidden from the public.
"What's extreme is that Congressman Tiffany, a longtime DC congressman, has voted against the interests of Wisconsinites over and over again," said Hong.
Q: Were you prepared for the pushback you received, especially from Republicans, framing you as far too extreme for Wisconsin?
FRANCESCA HONG: What's extreme is Rep. Tiffany has voted against the interests of Wisconsinites over and over again. What's extreme is that he's an… pic.twitter.com/QW0M5AVIVc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 11, 2026
The Intercept noted that despite the recent hand-wringing in the corporate media over Hong's past comments on Thanksgiving—complete with a Times article that asked whether voters can forgive her—"the Times’ on-the-ground reporting managed to dig up precisely one Wisconsinite who would not."
"Even allowing for the fact that the attacks on Hong follow a well-established right-wing tradition—let us never forget those who laid down their lives in the War on Christmas—why has such a ridiculous controversy come to dominate efforts to quash her campaign?" asked Intercept reporter Sean Bell.
"The answer is simple: Nothing else has worked, and that failure indicates a worrying pattern for the Democratic establishment terrified of an insurgent left," Bell continued. "As the numerous recent victories for DSA-backed or progressive Democratic candidates have demonstrated, attacking the left on policy is not the winning strategy it once was. Many voters no longer recoil at the mere mention of universal healthcare, rent controls, or the dreaded 'socialism.'"
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, which has endorsed both Hong and Flanagan, issued a reminder on Tuesday: "Here’s how electability actually works: The most electable candidate is the one who gets the most votes. This narrative was always manufactured by people afraid of Francesca—and afraid of what happens when working people actually win. Her supposedly ‘radical’ agenda is healthcare, affordable childcare, and making billionaires pay their fair share."
"That’s not unelectable," he said. "That’s what working people are asking for.”
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