Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig Bypasses DFL Convention, Takes Senate Bid Directly to Primary Voters
Why It Matters
Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race is taking shape as a direct primary contest after U.S. Rep. Angie Craig announced she will skip the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsement process and appeal directly to voters in the August primary. The decision signals a broader tension within the Minnesota Democratic Party over whether its internal endorsement system produces the strongest general-election candidates.
What Happened
Craig made her announcement Wednesday at a news conference outside the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, days before the DFL state convention was scheduled to convene in Rochester. She framed the party’s endorsement process as exclusionary, arguing that roughly 1,200 delegates cannot fairly represent the preferences of the broader Democratic electorate.
“It’s not really democracy when 1,200 people get to pick who our candidates are,” Craig said. She contended the process systematically advantages more ideologically activist candidates over those better positioned to win competitive general elections.
The move was widely read as an acknowledgment that Craig lacked sufficient delegate support to mount a serious challenge to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan at the convention. Flanagan’s campaign said Wednesday it was on pace to secure roughly 75 percent of the approximately 1,200 delegates who participate in the endorsement vote.
Craig’s Case for the Primary Route
Craig pointed to her track record in Minnesota’s most competitive congressional district, which she has won by growing margins since 2018 — including in a district that President Donald Trump carried. She argued her ability to attract moderate voters makes her the stronger candidate against leading Republican contender Michele Tafoya, a retired sports broadcaster.
St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, a Hmong refugee who appeared alongside Craig at the news conference, urged voters to weigh Craig’s full record on immigration, citing her co-sponsorship of legislation creating a citizenship pathway for Dreamers and measures opposing presidential travel bans.
Craig has faced criticism from DFL activists over her vote for the Laken Riley Act, which expanded federal authority to detain illegal immigrants without bail for certain offenses including theft and shoplifting. Craig later said she regretted that vote.
Flanagan Campaign Pushes Back
Flanagan’s team offered a sharp response, arguing that Craig’s willingness to bypass the convention raised questions about her readiness to run statewide. “If you can’t show up and face your own party, then you’re not ready to face Republicans,” Flanagan said in a video statement.
The campaign also noted that Craig had spent months attending smaller district-level conventions trying to build delegate support — suggesting the endorsement process was not dismissed until it became clear the math wasn’t there.
By the Numbers
- Approximately 1,200 DFL delegates participate in the party’s endorsement process
- Flanagan’s campaign projected she was on track to win roughly 75 percent of those delegates
- Craig has won her congressional district in successive elections since 2018, including in a Trump-carried district
- Publicly available polling shows Flanagan with a substantial lead over Craig in the primary
Zoom Out
The DFL’s endorsement record in statewide races is mixed at best. In 2018, then-Congressman Tim Walz and his running mate Peggy Flanagan lost the party endorsement but went on to win the primary and, ultimately, the governorship. They were subsequently re-elected to a second term. That history gives some credibility to Craig’s argument that the convention process does not reliably identify the candidate most likely to prevail in November.
The dynamic reflects a national pattern in which Democratic primaries increasingly pit party-activist preferences against the strategic calculus of winning swing constituencies — a tension that has surfaced in Senate races across multiple states heading into the 2026 cycle. For more on how this session has shaped Minnesota’s political landscape, see our takeaways from the 2026 Minnesota legislative session.
What’s Next
The DFL state convention is scheduled to proceed in Rochester, where Flanagan is expected to receive the party’s formal endorsement. Both candidates will then compete in the August primary, where the broader Democratic electorate — rather than party delegates — will determine the nominee. The winner will face the Republican nominee, with Tafoya currently among the leading candidates on that side of the race.