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Peggy Flanagan carries Indigenous legacy, fighter’s resolve into Minnesota Senate campaign As Minnesota Lt.Peggy Flanagan campaigns for the U.S.Senate, she is making a case that the Democratic Party’s future may depend less on messaging and more on reconnecting with voters who feel left behind by both parties.Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Nation who would become the first Native American woman elected to the U.S.Senate, won the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s endorsement by acclamation at its state convention in Rochester on May 30.The endorsement positions her to succeed retiring Sen.Tina Smith, but it does not settle the contest.Angie Craig, who skipped the convention to concentrate on the Aug.11 Democratic primary, remains in the race with a sizable fundraising advantage, and former state Sen.Melisa López Franzen has also entered.In a recent interview on the “Endless Urgency” podcast, hosted by Mike Nellis, Flanagan described a campaign built on rural organizing, grassroots support and a focus on everyday economic concerns rather than partisan battles.“We’ve been in communities across Minnesota, most of those being in greater Minnesota and rural communities,” Flanagan said, pointing to what she describes as a growing coalition of traditional Democrats, independents and even some former Republican voters.She walked into the DFL convention, she said, with the support of about 75 percent of delegates — delegates chosen by nearly 40,000 Minnesotans who turned out to precinct caucuses in February, during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement push in the Twin Cities.Many came, she said, determined to push back against the administration and stand up for their neighbors.When Craig opted to skip the convention, Flanagan secured the endorsement by acclamation — an outcome she casts as grassroots momentum rather than establishment favor.Craig, for her part, has argued that the endorsement process is too narrow to reflect the broader Democratic electorate.Flanagan acknowledges the race is entering a more expensive phase, one she says will be shaped by outside money and special-interest spending.“We know that there’s a lot of dark money that’s coming for us now,” she said.One emerging challenge is the growing use of artificial intelligence in campaigns.Flanagan — who notes that her own middle-school daughter is taught in school to spot AI fakes, and sometimes catches them faster than her mother does — condemned AI-generated deepfakes and misinformation as a threat to public trust and democratic participation.“There is no place in our democracy for AI deepfakes,” she said, praising Minnesota’s bipartisan efforts to address the issue while emphasizing the need for stronger protections at the state and federal levels.Her warning is not abstract.In early June, North Star Dawn, a super PAC supporting Craig, released an attack ad that Flanagan’s campaign and dozens of DFL legislators condemned as an AI-generated deepfake — a dispute that legal observers say could become an early test of the deepfake restrictions Minnesota enacted in 2023.The PAC has denied wrongdoing and disputes that the ad qualifies as a deepfake.Despite those concerns about technology and misinformation, Flanagan repeatedly returned to economic issues as voters’ top priority.“I don’t think there’s any voters who are interested in AI deepfakes either,” she said.“They just want to know, how am I going to be able to pay the rent?Why are the prices of my groceries skyrocketing?” That focus echoes the legacy of Minnesota’s late Sen.Paul Wellstone, whose people-centered politics remains influential among progressive leaders in the state.Flanagan argued that public frustration stems from a perception that government institutions are no longer delivering tangible improvements in people’s lives.She places much of the blame on corporate money in politics, pointing to spending by industries such as oil, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence that are increasingly active in federal races.“Our job is to demonstrate that you can run strong grassroots, people-powered campaigns without taking corporate PAC money and win,” Flanagan said.That, she added, is a first step toward ending the Citizens United campaign-finance regime and electing what she called progressive fighters willing to take on corporate interests.Her opponents dispute her framing; groups backing Craig have accused Flanagan of benefiting from corporate dollars through her past role chairing the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, a claim her campaign rejects.Perhaps most striking was her account of an event at a pizza place in southwestern Minnesota, where three farmers stood with their arms folded at the back of the room.One, who introduced himself as Dan, told her he and his neighbors had voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 and had not voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 — but had come out because, as he put it, she was “a tough cookie.” They disagreed with her on plenty, he said, but were troubled that food assistance had been split out of the farm bill, eroding what was once common ground between the parties.Flanagan points to caucus turnout as evidence the appeal is landing.She said 6 percent of this year’s DFL caucus-goers were Republicans and 15 percent were independents — including Dan, a first-time Democratic caucus participant — a crossover she called unprecedented.“Our job is to say, ‘Awesome, come on in.There’s a place to be here,’” she said.As the primary intensifies, Flanagan is betting that voters want something increasingly rare in national politics: candidates willing to talk less about partisan warfare and more about the cost of living, economic security and community well-being.Whether that message can withstand millions of dollars in outside spending — and a well-funded primary opponent — remains to be seen.But Flanagan believes the path forward for Democrats, and perhaps for American politics more broadly, runs through the same principle that guided Wellstone decades ago: improving people’s lives.This article was produced with AI assistance.Angie Craig brings personal story, political grit to Minnesota Senate campaign Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig is entering the race for the U.S.Senate with a campaign built around a familiar theme in her political life: turning personal struggles into public advocacy.Craig, who represents Minnesota’s Second Congressional District, has launched her bid for what is expected to be one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate contests.Her campaign combines a record of electoral success in competitive districts with a personal narrative rooted in family, civil rights and economic opportunity.For Craig, politics has never been entirely separate from personal experience.“It teaches you what is at stake when rights are left up to politics.” A family fight that shaped her politics Long before she became the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to Congress from Minnesota, Craig and her wife, Cheryl Greene, faced legal battles that tested their family’s future.Craig frequently recounts the years she spent fighting for the right to adopt her son, Josh, navigating a court system that did not recognize her family in the same way it recognized others.That experience, she says, shaped her understanding of what government policies mean in people’s everyday lives.“The uncertainty of not knowing whether your family will be recognized or protected changes you,” Craig has said in campaign appearances.“It teaches you what is at stake when rights are left up to politics.” Craig also points to her role in Minnesota’s successful fight for marriage equality.After marrying her wife in California in 2008, she watched as legal and political battles over same-sex marriage continued across the country.Those experiences helped shape the activist spirit she now presents as centra