{"id":18559,"date":"2026-02-02T17:01:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tina-smith-endorses-peggy-flanagan-over-angie-craig-in-minnesota-senate-race\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T17:01:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:01:50","slug":"tina-smith-endorses-peggy-flanagan-over-angie-craig-in-minnesota-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tina-smith-endorses-peggy-flanagan-over-angie-craig-in-minnesota-senate-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Tina Smith endorses Peggy Flanagan over Angie Craig in Minnesota Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sen. Tina Smith is endorsing Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan as her successor over Rep. Angie Craig, taking sides in a hotly contested primary to fill Smith\u2019s Senate seat that\u2019s been roiled in recent weeks by the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive immigration enforcement efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, 3,000 federal agents are terrorizing our communities,\u201d Smith said in a video announcing her pick<\/u><\/a> that was shared first with Blue Light News. \u201cI know that right now there is no one that I trust more to stand with Minnesota than Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flanagan, in the video, called it an \u201chonor\u201d to have the retiring senator\u2019s endorsement and pledged to \u201ccontinue in her footsteps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to push back against the status quo and send a progressive fighter to continue representing us in Washington, D.C.,\u201d Flanagan said.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s endorsement comes a day before the state\u2019s Democratic and Republican precinct caucuses, the first step in each party\u2019s formal endorsement process.<\/p>\n

In selecting Flanagan, Smith is elevating a fellow lieutenant governor and progressive over Craig, a moderate, for the seat she has held since 2018<\/u><\/a>. Smith is the eighth sitting senator to endorse Flanagan, who also has the backing of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other members of the so-called Fight Club of progressive senators of which they are all a part. Former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who held the seat before Smith, also endorsed Flanagan.<\/p>\n

Craig has some high-profile endorsements of her own, with five senators including Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in her corner, as well as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.<\/p>\n

And it comes against the backdrop of deadly incidents involving federal agents enforcing President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown in the state that have opened new fissures in the Senate primary. While both candidates have called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s impeachment, Flanagan has attacked Craig for taking \u201cpro-Trump\u201d immigration votes last year, while Craig has countered that her rival is being \u201cdisingenuous\u201d<\/u><\/a> about the content and context of the measures.<\/p>\n

Nonpartisan public polling in the race has been scant. Polling conducted in the past month for Flanagan\u2019s team, as well as a separate survey commissioned by a pro-Flanagan group, shows the lieutenant governor with a double-digit lead over Craig<\/u><\/a>. A poll commissioned by Craig\u2019s campaign showed the race <\/u><\/a>within the margin of error.<\/p>\n

Craig has built a fundraising advantage in the race<\/u><\/a>, raising $2 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and starting the election year with $3.7 million in cash on hand. Flanagan, meanwhile, raised roughly $1 million in that timeframe and ended the year with $810,646 in the bank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Tina Smith is endorsing Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan as her successor over Rep. Angie Craig, taking sides in a hotly contested primary to fill Smith\u2019s Senate seat that\u2019s been roiled in recent weeks by the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive immigration enforcement efforts. \u201cToday, 3,000 federal agents are terrorizing our communities,\u201d Smith said in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}