Minnesota Voters Just Told AIPAC and the Swamp to Pound Sand

By Buck Buckhorn · August 12, 2026

Opinion

Peggy Flanagan beat Angie Craig by nearly 20 points Tuesday night, and if you want to understand why the establishment is panicking, you need to follow the money. Not the speeches. Not the endorsements. The money.

Craig raised $12.7 million. Flanagan raised about $6.5 million. Outside groups dumped $20.6 million into the race, and here’s where it gets interesting: $9.77 million went to support Craig, $7.23 million went to attack Flanagan, and just $1.3 million went to support Flanagan. Do the math on that. The swamp spent roughly $17 million trying to install their candidate and barely $1 million backing the other one. That’s not a campaign. That’s an investment.

And who were the investors? AIPAC hosted fundraisers for Craig. Nancy Pelosi endorsed her. Hakeem Jeffries endorsed her. Pete Buttigieg endorsed her. The entire Democratic leadership structure lined up behind one candidate, and Minnesota voters looked at that lineup and said no thanks.

Peggy Flanagan won the Minnesota Democratic Senate primary by nearly 20 points.

Flanagan won 58.9% to 39.5%. That’s not a nail-biter. That’s a rejection.

Funny how the party that lectures everyone about democracy spent $17 million trying to override what their own voters wanted. Funny how the same people who wring their hands about dark money in politics had no problem watching $20 million in outside cash flood a single primary. Ask yourself who benefits when a congressional representative who voted for the Laken Riley Act gets propped up by AIPAC fundraisers and Pelosi robocalls. Not the voters. Not the little guy. The people who write the checks and expect a return.

Flanagan ran on Medicare for All, universal childcare, and a path to citizenship. She talked about growing up on food stamps and Section 8 housing. She said she’d “tear ICE apart.” And the voters who showed up were not the ones the consultants predicted. A 64-year-old hardwood flooring installer in Apple Valley named Carson Medcalf voted in a primary for the first time in his life because his wife is a Vietnamese immigrant and they spent the winter terrified. He told the Minnesota Reformer he liked Craig but couldn’t stomach her ICE vote. That’s not a focus group. That’s a man who’s scared and angry and decided to do something about it.

Now here’s the detail nobody in the establishment wants to talk about. Tim Walz, the governor, the guy who served alongside Flanagan for eight years, did not endorse her. His wife Gwen endorsed Craig. Eight years as running mates and Walz sat on his hands. Ask yourself what that tells you about loyalty in that building. Walz dropped his own re-election bid because of a social services fraud scandal that happened on his watch, and Flanagan has been careful to point every question about it right back at him. Funny how that works. The governor who let billions get stolen from social programs won’t endorse the lieutenant governor who keeps reminding people it was his job to stop it.

Angie Craig was the AIPAC-backed Democratic Senate primary candidate who lost.

This win follows Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Senate primary. Two Midwest states, two progressive wins, two establishment picks buried. The progressive wing didn’t get everything Tuesday night. In Wisconsin, moderate David Crowley narrowly beat democratic socialist Francesca Hong. But the pattern is clear. The base is done with candidates who take AIPAC money, vote for Republican immigration bills, and call it pragmatism.

Flanagan faces Republican Michele Tafoya in November. Tafoya is a former sportscaster who says the race is “common sense versus crazy.” She’ll have money. She’ll have the GOP machine. And she’ll have a Democratic opponent who just beat $17 million in swamp cash without breaking a sweat.

The people who run this country thought they could buy Minnesota. They couldn’t even rent it.

Sources