The retirement of Democratic Sen. Tina Smith has opened up a Senate seat in Minnesota.
The leading candidates in the Democratic primary to succeed her are Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig, the ranking member of the influential House Committee on Agriculture. Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, would be the fifth Native American person and first Native American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Craig would be the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the Senate from Minnesota. Smith endorsed Flanagan for the seat on February 2
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Former NBA player Royce White, the 2024 Republican nominee for Senate; Michele Tafoya, a former sports reporter for NBC News; and former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze are running in the Republican primary.
Minnesota is a solidly blue state — it’s voted for the Democratic presidential nominee every cycle since 1976 and last elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2002. But the Democratic primary, which will help shape the future direction of the party, is expected to draw national attention and outside spending.
Craig, elected to the House in 2018, is a member of the center-left New Democratic coalition and has been endorsed by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Ruben Gallego and Andy Kim as well as the Equality PAC and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Flanagan, a progressive, has been endorsed by former Sen. Al Franken, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American person to serve as a Cabinet secretary.
Republicans currently control the Senate by a three-seat majority, 53 to 47, and Senators serve six-year terms, meaning a third of the Senate is up every election cycle. For Democrats to win back the chamber in 2026, they’d need to hold competitive seats in states like Georgia and Michigan while flipping four GOP-held seats in Maine, North Carolina and even more Republican-leaning states like Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas.
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