Twenty Million Dollars Couldn’t Buy Minnesota

By Buck Buckhorn · August 12, 2026

Opinion

Funny how democracy is supposed to work. You get two candidates, people vote, the one with more votes wins. Unless you’re the Democratic establishment, in which case you skip all that pesky counting and just try to buy the thing outright.

Angie Craig and her allies dumped nearly $20 million into Minnesota’s Senate primary. Peggy Flanagan and hers spent $4.7 million. That’s not a typo. Craig outspent Flanagan by more than four to one, and she still lost. NBC News projects Flanagan won the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Senator Tina Smith, and somewhere a consultant is staring at a spreadsheet wondering how you burn through $20 million and still can’t close the deal.

Angie Craig, Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate who outspent Peggy Flanagan by four to one.

Ask yourself who benefits when a four-term congresswoman with that kind of war chest loses to a lieutenant governor running on Medicare for All and dismantling ICE. Not the donors. Not the PACs. Not Pete Buttigieg, who hitched his wagon to Craig like she was a sure thing. The people who benefit are the ones who actually showed up and voted, which is exactly the outcome the machine never wants you to believe is possible.

Here’s what the establishment doesn’t want to talk about. Craig voted for the Laken Riley Act, Trump’s immigration detention bill, right after he took office. Then, when it became politically inconvenient in a primary full of voters furious about federal agents shooting two American citizens in Minneapolis, she suddenly discovered she regretted it. She wrote a whole op-ed about it. You don’t regret a vote like that. You make that vote because you’re calculating, and you regret it because you got caught calculating wrong. That’s not conscience. That’s damage control.

Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota Democratic lieutenant governor who won the Senate primary.

Flanagan, for her part, said ICE “has to be ripped apart.” She wants universal childcare. She wants Medicare for All. She carried endorsements from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ilhan Omar, and the retiring Senator Tina Smith. And she ran on a line that should terrify every consultant in Washington: “the many versus the money.” That’s not a slogan. That’s a threat to the entire business model.

Now consider the spending gap again. Craig’s people said Flanagan’s numbers were “plummeting.” Prediction markets had Flanagan at 72 percent. The polls were all over the map, one showing Craig up 2, another showing Flanagan up 14. And the establishment still couldn’t get it done. They threw everything at this, and the people said no.

Tina Smith, Retiring Minnesota Senator whose seat Flanagan is replacing.

Of course, now comes the part where everybody hugs. Craig already said she’d support Flanagan. Flanagan said they’d be “unified.” That’s the script. You fight like dogs for six months, then smile for the cameras and pretend it was all just a spirited disagreement. But the fault lines don’t disappear because you stage a press conference. The Democratic Party just watched its moderate wing get outspent and out-organized by its progressive wing in a state the moderates were supposed to own. That’s not a footnote. That’s a tectonic shift.

And on the Republican side? Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter who calls herself “pro-choice” and couldn’t even win her own party’s endorsement at the convention, is the nominee. Tim Scott and the national Republicans backed her because they think she’s the only one who can compete. A Republican who hasn’t won statewide in Minnesota in 20 years, and they’re pinning their hopes on a broadcaster. That’s not a strategy. That’s a Hail Mary.

The real story here isn’t left versus right. It’s the people versus the checkbook. And for once, the checkbook lost.

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