Democratic Rep. Angie Craig announced Tuesday that she’s running for the Senate in Minnesota, a long-expected campaign that sets up a crowded primary among Craig, the state’s lieutenant governor and a former state legislative leader.
In her announcement video, Craig criticized President Donald Trump for “trampling our rights and freedoms as he profits,” Elon Musk as “an out-of-control, unelected billionaire trying to take control of our government and burn it to the ground” and “cowardly congressional Republicans.”
“It’s time to fight back. We’ve got to break through the chaos and take them head on,” Craig says.
Craig frames herself as an underdog who went from growing up in a mobile home and working through college to defeating a Republican member of Congress, and she says she and her wife “fought like hell to be the parents of our four wonderful boys” when she lived in Tennessee.
“We’re proud Minnesotans — a state of fierce independence, freedom and community. People willing to take on the powerful and fight for what’s right,” Craig says in her launch video. “It’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate: to listen, to fight for all of Minnesota and to win.”
She’s part of a growing field of candidates looking to replace Sen. Tina Smith, the Democrat who announced this winter she wouldn’t seek re-election. Smith is one of four Democratic senators who are leaving at the end of 2026, and her departure opens up a seat in a state Democrats are favored to win (the last time Republicans won a Senate seat in Minnesota was 2002) but one that has become more competitive in recent years.
Craig is no stranger to difficult races, which her allies are likely to point to as she contends for a statewide nomination. Back when Minnesota’s 2nd District was one of the top battlegrounds in the country, Craig lost narrowly to GOP Rep. Jason Lewis in 2016 but toppled him two years later and joined the House in 2019. She won tough re-elections in 2020 and 2022 before she scored a double-digit victory last year.
Despite winning the top Democratic slot on the House Agriculture Committee ahead of this Congress, Craig will leave her seat to seek a spot in the Senate (leaving Democrats to defend her seat as they hope to retake control of the House). And she won’t have a clear path: The current field includes Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and former state Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen.
Flanagan, who would be the first Native American woman in the Senate if she wins, immediately signaled after Smith’s retirement that she would run to replace her. She is in her second term as Gov. Tim Walz’s No. 2, and she got some national attention when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention. She has sought in the early weeks of her campaign to frame herself as a candidate promising to stand up to Trump and his “billionaire besties.”
Ahead of Craig’s expected announcement, Flanagan rolled out a handful of endorsements from key Democrats in the state, like Attorney General Keith Ellison and former Sen. Al Franken (who resigned in 2017 amid allegations of sexual misconduct), as well as a handful of state lawmakers in Craig’s congressional district.
López Franzen has, in her campaign’s early weeks, leaned on both her time in the Legislature and an electability argument in a state that she told Minnesota Public Radio is “purple.” While Republicans haven’t won a Senate election in more than two decades, Trump lost the state by just 4 points last year, and the state House is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
While the Democratic nominee is likely to enter the general election favored given the Democrats’ success statewide, the open seat gives Republicans an opportunity.
Royce White, the GOP nominee who lost to Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar last year and has gained notoriety (and stoked controversy) with an incendiary online presence, is running again.
Retired Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze is running, too, and it’s possible the field could grow — former longtime sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya (who previously worked for NBC) has become more outspoken in recent years in support of conservative policies, criticizing Minnesota Democrats on social media, and she hasn’t yet closed the door on running.
National Republicans didn’t spend much time and money supporting Royce’s bid last year and were able to take control of the Senate. But while some are bullish on the idea that an open seat gives them a better chance in the state, it’s unclear how competitive the seat will be next year.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win back control of the Senate, a difficult task considering that they have to defend Democratic-held seats in two states Trump won last year (Georgia and Michigan) and two open seats (in Minnesota and New Hampshire) and that they have limited opportunities to go on offense, with only a handful of races in competitive Republican-held seats.
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