Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s preferred candidates have encountered another problem in the 2026 election cycle, and this time it comes from Minnesota.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won Tuesday’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, defeating Rep. Angie Craig, whom Schumer had backed in the race.
The result gives progressive Democrats another high-profile primary victory following Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow win in Michigan and adds to the questions surrounding the direction of the Democratic Party heading into November.
Flanagan, who serves as lieutenant governor under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, wasted little time demonstrating how she intends to campaign.
During her victory speech Tuesday, she took direct aim at Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Donald Trump.
“Now let’s talk about Donald Trump’s out-of-control ICE force,” Flanagan said. “We need to rip ICE apart and stop them from terrorizing our communities.”
But Flanagan paired that demand with support for border security and changes to the immigration system.
“And I know this,” she continued. “I know that we can fix our broken immigration system, secure the border, and create a real pathway to citizenship that aligns with our values.”
Immigration enforcement has been particularly contentious in Minnesota following the January deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during separate confrontations with federal immigration agents.
Flanagan’s victory also carries consequences beyond Minnesota because it represents another defeat for the Democratic Party’s established leadership.
Just last week, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly captured the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan. El-Sayed received backing from independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the country’s best-known democratic socialists.
Republicans have been delighted to watch the Democratic primaries move in this direction.
President Trump celebrated El-Sayed’s victory as favorable news for Republicans, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly seized on Flanagan’s win to attack Schumer.
“Morale among Chuck Schumer’s establishment is at an all-time low, and Bernie Sanders’ socialist flank is filling the gap with candidates like Peggy Flanagan and Abdul El-Sayed,” NRSC spokesperson Bernadette Breslin told Fox News.
The Republican framing is predictable, but the underlying primary results present Democrats with a genuine internal question.
Voters in multiple Democratic contests have demonstrated a willingness to reject candidates associated with the party establishment in favor of candidates running to their left.
That pattern hasn’t been universal. Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong lost Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday, demonstrating that progressive momentum doesn’t automatically translate into victory.
Elsewhere, however, the movement has produced significant results.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed three socialist candidates who defeated establishment Democratic opponents in June. Other progressive and democratic socialist candidates have subsequently scored primary victories, while polling has indicated growing interest among a portion of Democratic voters in candidates willing to use the “Democratic Socialist” label.
Now comes the harder test.
Winning a Democratic primary and winning a statewide general election are two different challenges. Republicans plainly believe candidates positioned further left will be easier to defeat in competitive states, particularly when the GOP can concentrate attention on positions involving immigration, policing, spending and socialism.
Democratic progressives are effectively betting on the opposite proposition: that voters are dissatisfied enough with established party leadership to reward candidates offering a sharper ideological alternative.
Minnesota will now provide one test of that theory.
For Schumer, meanwhile, the immediate problem isn’t theoretical. He backed Craig, and Democratic primary voters chose Flanagan.
The same struggle is playing out elsewhere as insurgent candidates challenge politicians favored by established Democratic leaders.
That leaves two contests ahead: Democrats must first settle the internal fight over what kind of party they want, while the candidates who survive that fight must then persuade general-election voters to put them in office.
Tuesday night in Minnesota settled the first question for Schumer.
His candidate lost.
