‘Disgusting’: Minnesota Senate Race Gets Hostile After ICE Shooting

President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration agents into Minneapolis and an ICE officer’s shooting of a civilian there has blown up the already-existing ideological divide in the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat, turning the race sharply negative.

Progressive Senate hopeful Peggy Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor, has accused her moderate opponent Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) of changing her tune on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid the furor over the agency’s often-violent tactics.

“This Senate race is a fundamental question about whether or not we’re going to have a United States senator who sticks to their values and truths, or someone who votes with Republicans and Donald Trump when it’s politically expedient,” Flanagan said in an interview with HuffPost. “I can tell you which side I’m on.”

Meanwhile, Craig, who has long represented a swing district outside Minneapolis, called Flanagan’s attacks “disgusting” and said she ought to focus on pushing back the surge of immigration officers into the state and bringing criminals who committed fraud to justice.

“I would advise the lieutenant governor to join me in this fight against the Trump administration and this lawless thug group of ICE agents in Minnesota, instead of taking this opportunity to attack a fellow Democrat,” Craig told HuffPost.

“What she’s doing right now sounds just like it came out of the MAGA playbook, and frankly, it pisses me off,” the lawmaker added.

Democrats need to retain the seat held by retiring Sen. Tina Smith to have any chance of winning the Senate in 2026. Minnesota’s general Democratic lean and the growing backlash to Trump’s unpopular presidency should help whoever wins the nomination, but Republicans are gleefully looking for opportunities to capitalize on intraparty divides.

Last January, Craig voted for the Laken Riley Act, which gave Trump new powers to detain immigrants accused of crimes. In June, she joined 74 other Democrats in voting for a Republican resolution that condemned antisemitism following an attack against Israel supporters in Colorado and also expressed gratitude to ICE and other law enforcement officers amid Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

Flanagan has pointed to both votes as reasons why Craig shouldn’t be trusted with the Senate nomination.

Craig called the ICE resolution a “gotcha” measure designed to divide Democrats. Nevertheless, she said she voted for it to send a message opposing the rise of antisemitism across the country.

“You make difficult choices on these Republican gotcha bills every single day when you’re serving,” she said. “And so I would ask, would the lieutenant governor have voted against a resolution to condemn antisemitism?” (A majority of the House Democratic caucus voted against the resolution.)

Craig has taken a much stronger stance against ICE since last summer, however, including by demanding its officers leave the state she represents and helping introduce articles of impeachment against the woman who oversees the agency, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. To underscore her point, she held up a cardboard sign at a campaign event over the weekend that simply read: “Impeach Kristi Noem.”

Over the weekend, Craig sought to enter an ICE detention facility with other Minnesota House Democrats outside Minneapolis but was blocked by DHS officials from doing so. That followed a heated confrontation with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) last week in which the two lawmakers engaged in a shouting match on the floor of the House of Representatives over Good’s shooting and Emmer’s support for ICE.

The charges of political expediency against Craig illustrate how navigating the Trump era — and Americans’ rapidly shifting views on immigration enforcement, from a desire for a sharp crackdown in 2024 to revulsion at ICE’s tactics today — could prove difficult for moderate Democrats hoping to win party primaries dominated by an electorate that loathes everything the president touches.

And it’s not just in Minnesota. Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s Democratic campaign for Senate similarly attacked one of her primary opponents, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, over his vote expressing “gratitude” for ICE last year.

Republicans see immigration and the welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota as two issues that can help them flip a Senate seat in the state, something they haven’t been able to do since former Sen. Norm Coleman narrowly won his bid for the upper chamber in 2002. The party has started to rally behind Michele Tafoya, a former sideline reporter on ‘Monday Night Football’ who quit to launch a career as a conservative news personality, as their candidate in the state.

On Monday, all 53 Senate Republicans sent a letter to Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz (D) pressing him for more information about the allegations of fraud involving federal child care funding in his state. Walz recently quit his campaign for a third term to deal with the matter.

Flanagan, as Walz’s lieutenant, will likely face similar questions if she wins the Democratic Senate primary. Asked if that worried her, Flanagan called fraud “completely unacceptable” and deferred to Walz’s efforts bringing criminals to justice.

“The governor has said that the buck stops with him, and has also said, you know, that he’s really taken the lead here,” she told HuffPost.

But Craig warned that the scandal could put the Senate seat at risk if Flanagan becomes the nominee.

“She’s the second-highest-ranking officer in state government, and instead of taking any responsibility or accountability, she actually has been throwing Governor Walz under the bus every time she gets a question about fraud,” she said. “It’s going to be a significant issue in the Senate race for her finish line.”

Neither candidate has embraced abolishing ICE, a movement that became popular with progressives during Trump’s first term. Flanagan suggested instead a “complete and total overhaul” of the agency. Both Democrats are also in agreement on withholding funding for ICE ahead of a Jan. 31 appropriations deadline in Congress.

“We should not be funding an agency that is causing such chaos, terror and pain, especially now that someone has lost their life,” Flanagan insisted to HuffPost.

Describing how her 78-year-old aunt was recently “forced off the road” and “surrounded” by ICE agents in her vehicle, Flanagan said, “This is an entity that is making all of us less safe.”

The two Democrats have a long fight ahead of them. Minnesota voters don’t go to the polls to determine their Senate nominee for another six months.