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Minnesota voters have a rare, open U.S. Senate seat to fill next year. Far ahead of that, the jockeying is under way in both parties to determine who makes the November 2026 ballot.
Multiple candidates are on the hunt to fill the seat that DFL Sen. Tina Smith will leave at the end of her term.
The race is hottest among Democrats, who have two prominent officeholders raking in money and trotting out backers as they seek their party’s nod. On the Republican side, several candidates said they’re prepared to buck tradition and move to a contested primary election if party delegates pass them over for the GOP endorsement.
Next November’s winner could be a voice of opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration or an ally in helping move the president’s agenda.
At an August rally in Minneapolis, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren touted her support of Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the race. Warren said the party needs more members willing to firmly push back against Republicans.
“I am here because Democrats need fighters in the United States Senate. I am here because hard-working families need a fighter in the United States Senate,” Warren told the crowd of hundreds who filled the patio at Bauhaus Brew Labs. “I am here because Peggy Flanagan is the fighter we need in the United States Senate.”
Flanagan casts herself as a new voice for Washington. At this time last year, the lieutenant governor was positioning herself to step into the role of governor if then vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won.
Walz is expected to announce any day whether he’ll pursue a third term. But in the meantime, Flanagan said she remains focused on her bid for the Senate. Without naming names of opponents, she said a status quo candidate wouldn’t fit the bill to fill the seat.
“As Democrats, we can't just go along and offer the same-old-same-old because it is not working,” Flanagan said. “We have got to send more folks to Washington who actually understand what our neighbors are up against, people who have the guts to fight against these powerful corporate interests who are pulling the strings these days, and people who actually live in the real world, people like you and people like me.”
She said she has firsthand knowledge about the programs that the Republican Congress and Trump are looking to pare back with recent budget actions. She said she is prepared to fight back against those changes.
“Things in our country are incredibly tough. They're really awful for a lot of people, but I have never abandoned my capacity to hope and to believe in a better future, because I am living proof of what is actually possible,” she said.
Flanagan is vying for the DFL endorsement along with U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Billy Nord, a manager at a streaming company. The candidates say the party’s nod is important, but they’re prepared to move to a summer primary election if they don’t get it.
On a recent afternoon, Craig walked the grounds at the Minnesota State Fair. At her side was a backer with a big name in Minnesota — a Wellstone. Dave Wellstone, the son of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, said he’s all-in for Craig’s campaign for the same seat his father once held.
“There's supporters and there’s supporters, and I'm one of those supporters with a capital S,” Wellstone said. “I mean, there's a lot of people who will support her, but I'm wanting to do whatever I can do.”
That includes repairing his father’s big green campaign bus to take it back out on the road.
Craig represents the swingy Second Congressional District, a part suburban, part rural district home to some of Minnesota’s most expensive congressional campaigns of late. She’s telling voters she also wants to fight proposals to gut social safety net programs. The Democratic lead on the House Agriculture Committee has also pushed back on the president’s tariffs that she says have landed hard in farm country. She’ll lose her shot at chairing the committee by attempting to make the jump to the Senate.
Craig has staked out a moderate image and prides herself on working across party lines. Craig made the rounds to the more conservative-leaning Farm Bureau booth and went in for a handshake with Republican Senate candidate Royce White at his fair booth last week.
White declined the handshake, saying he thought Democrats were “communists.”
While that interaction was tense, Craig said it’s important to her to listen to people outside her party. But she said she won’t be shy about pushing back when she thinks they get policy positions wrong.
“I think it's really important that we not just stay in our blue bubbles, that we get out and we hear directly from people about what their impressions of us are. Because we need to fight the administrative policies with a fist closed,” she said, “but we also have to have our hand open, ready to welcome people back to our party and to support us.”
Craig has a fundraising edge on Flanagan, partly because she was able to roll over her congressional campaign funds to her Senate campaign. She had $1.8 million cash on hand at the close of the reporting period that ended in June. That compared to Flanagan’s roughly $783,000. Flanagan has said she won’t take contributions from corporate-driven political action committees.
For Republicans, White had the most money banked at the end of June with about $162,000. That was ahead of Adam Schwarze’s nearly $97,000. Tom Weiler, who entered the race over the summer, had less than $2,000 available.
White said he’s feeling confident about his latest campaign.
“We like our odds going for an open seat against somebody else who doesn't have great name recognition either,” he said.
White, a self-proclaimed outsider, was the Republican Party’s nominee in 2024 in a race Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar easily won. The former professional basketball player said he’s in this race for the long haul, even if it means going hard at fellow Republicans.
“We're going to have a throwdown here,” he said. “The Republican Party is in a full-blown sort of civil war, still.”
Across the board, Republican candidates said they’d aim to work with the president and Republicans in Congress to advance their priorities of a smaller government, lower taxes and conservative social policies.
Weiler, a Navy veteran who previously ran for Congress, said it's time for a new face on the ticket.
“GOP politics hasn't led to victories. You know, we've lost for 20 straight years. So to follow the status quo, I don't think makes any sense,” Weiler said.
At his booth at the State Fair, Schwarze encouraged passersby to challenge themselves to complete as many sit-ups or push-ups as they could. The retired Navy seal and Marine said he hopes to bring the Presidential Fitness Test back into American schools.
Unlike others in the field on the GOP side, Schwarze said he plans to abide by the GOP endorsement.
“We're focused on that endorsement, and I'm confident that our message is resonating with the most important people for that endorsement, which is the delegates. It's really the first phase in serving we the people, is we the people of the Republican Party,” he said.
Republicans Alycia Gruenhagen, Raymond Petersen and Mike Ruoho are also seeking the GOP endorsement. Unaffiliated candidate Marissa Simonetti has also launched a campaign.
Both the DFL and the Republican Parties hold endorsing conventions next spring. The primary is in August.
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