Oh No, Minnesota Senate Nom Peggy Flanagan Promised To Murder All The ICE Thugs With Her Bare Hands, If You're A Liar!
They've got us this time for sure!
Minnesota progressives scored a big win in Tuesday’s Democratic … ahem, Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary, choosing Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan as the DFL nominee for Senate this fall. In Very Blue Minnesota, she is the automatic front-runner in the race to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Tina Smith. (Sen. Amy Klobuchar is running for governor, but has not resigned her Senate seat; if she resigns her seat between now and her presumed January swearing in, Gov. Tim Walz appoints her successor. If she does not resign before she’s sworn in, she appoints her own successor. She’s got this fucking thing, and it’s fucking golden.) If she wins, Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation, would become the first Native American woman in the US Senate, a distinction we really hope she’ll share with Alaska’s Mary Peltola.
Flanagan will face Republican nominee and former NFL reporter Michele Tafoya, a MAGA loony who in February insisted that “on any given night, over 30 percent of Californians are homeless. Thirty percent!” (Fact check: LOL get a life, liar. Not to downplay homelessness, but in reality it’s a little under half a percent.)
In a primary that Flanagan described as being about “the many versus the money,” Flanagan racked up a nearly 20-point win (59 percent to 39.4 percent) over Rep. Angie Craig, a moderate whose campaign (and allied PACs) spent nearly $20 million compared to $4.7 million for Flanagan and supporters. Pretty good ROI.
Not surprisingly after the Trump regime’s murderous deportation campaign in the Twin Cities, ICE and Trump’s ethnic cleansing policy were central to the campaign. While both candidates demanded that ICE get the hell out of the state, Minnesota voters weren’t in a mood to overlook Craig’s craven 2025 vote in favor of the GOP’s ugly fearmongering “Laken Riley Act.” Craig was one of just 48 Dems in the House to support the Republicans’ bloody-shirt messaging bill, which did fuck-all to make anyone safer.
As it became clear that Flanagan was winning by a wide margin, Craig called her early Tuesday evening to congratulate her, mend fences, and urge her supporters to get out and support Flanagan.
In her victory speech, Flanagan returned the favor, telling Craig supporters, “I will bust my tail to earn your votes and most importantly, your trust. I need you in this fight. Minnesota needs you in this fight.” Isn’t it nice when everyone works things out like that?
Here’s video. We like the cut of her jib!
One line in particular has drawn attention from both Left and Right, drawing delighted “FUCK YEAHs” from progressives and alarmed fretting from the Usual Suspects. Transitioning from a call for Medicare for All, Flanagan said that it’s time to get rid of “Donald Trump’s out-of-control ICE force. We need to rip ICE apart and stop them from terrorizing our communities.”
Just to be clear, she wants to rip up the agency, not the thugs themselves, who will get due process in their trials. (Yes, we know how a lot of readers feel, but we got some commenting rules here.)
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Not surprisingly, rightwing media is running with that one line and suggesting that it’s the most scandalous thing a Democrat has ever said since the last time a Democrat said anything.
A quick Googling shows that Fox has since Tuesday run at least four headlines quoting the “rip ICE apart” line on its website, plus a bunch of social media posts on other platforms. Several of the Fox Mothership posts are just video snippets from Fox talk shows where the panelists tut-tut about Flanagan’s “violent” rhetoric, because figurative language doesn’t exist and she obviously intends to literally dismember ICE agents. My goodness, how uncivil she is!
Also in the speech, Flanagan contrasted her call for ICE to be disbanded with Tafoya’s early defense of the Brute Squads, noting that Tafoya “even said ICE treated children ‘really, really well.’ Well Michele, tell that to Liam Conejo Ramos.”
Flanagan has also been a sharp critic of Trump’s pointless war against Iran and the resulting affordability crisis, and in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio Wednesday slammed Tafoya for essentially telling Minnesotans to smile and think of America when they face higher gas prices.
Yes, that’s pretty much what Tafoya said on Todd Starnes’s rightwing talk radio show back in March, when US victory was going to be quick and easy. Here’s the recording of Tafoya echoing the old rhetoric about how young people could all afford to buy homes if they’d just refrain from all the avocado toast and lattes all the time.
Flanagan told MPR that just telling people trying to make ends meet to keep a stiff upper lip isn’t going to cut it. “With the high cost of gas and fertilizer prices, Michele Tafoya is going to just be another ‘Yes, sir, Mr. President’ Senator, and we do not need that.”
As Evan pointed out the other day, this year’s Democratic primaries aren’t about who’s a centrist and who’s a progressive, they’re about who’s going to fight and who’s going to make excuses for why we can’t really do anything about the status quo because what about the focus groups and the sensibilities of our esteemed fascist colleagues?
Peggy Flanagan is on Team Fight, and she’s also enjoying the fight for decency and democracy in the best possible way.
This should be a fun campaign, huh? Has Tafoya called Flanagan a communist yet?
[NBC News / MPR / Nation / Minnesota Reformer]
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I voted for Flanagan and I am happy she kicked Craig's ass.
As for ripping ice apart? I'm fine with the figurative or literal interpretation.
I'm delighted Flanagan won, and I'm delighted Rep. Craig took the high road in defeat. She had been rolling in the mud in the primary campaign. I hope Gov. Walz or to-be-former Sen/Gov. Elect Klobuchar appoint Craig to fill the rest of Klobuchar's terms. Then we'll have what we've had since Sen. Tina Smith decided not to run for re-election, and to finally begin to speak up; a Progressive and a Centrist woman Senator.
Out-of-Fucks-to-give Tina Smith is Best Tina Smith. The silent Tina Smith may have been effective behind the scenes, but it doesn't help if nobody can remember the name of their Senator.
Only one caveat here, Dok.
Minnesota is NOT "Very Blue."
The urban areas are "Very Blue." The rural areas are "Dark Red, like Blood." This was not the case until the Reagan era. During that awful time, the DFL seemingly deserted rural areas as they collapsed. The Republicans of course pandered to the very worst of rural culture, with almost no resistance. The DFL seemingly decided they had to be Reagan-Lite, and it didn't fucking work as everyone was screaming at them. The DFL themselves were horrified when Paul Wellstone became their nominee, and then had the effrontery to win and be very popular until he died in that plane crash.
If it weren't for the Extreme Left Radical Communist Antifa Democrat FDR Democrats in "The Cities", Rochester and Duluth, we'd be electing Mike Lindell Governor at best, and putting Tom Emmer and worse in the US Senate.
Tafoya is a tough opponent. Not because of her; she's worthless. But she was on NFL telecasts, and she's willing to go full-racist. She already is, against Somalis, and that will bring in votes.
Flanagan has to make no mistakes. She has to get every vote in urban areas, some votes outstate, and overall the rural racist/fascists have to be too discouraged to vote in large numbers. Without Trump on the ballot, I'm cautiously optimistic.
But Minnesota can only appear to be "Very Blue" to those not here because the Republicans here are frothing at the mouth. If they were the least bit reasonable, they'd be damn dangerous, given the atavistic rage bubbling out in farm country as they like all of rural America are consumed and destroyed by asset extraction. That's coming to urban America too, but it's not here yet.