Voting for Angie Craig is About More than Winning

All elections are important, but if you want your vote to matter most, participate in Minnesota’s primary election. Every vote is much more influential in August than in November.

Consider this: In the last gubernatorial election, 2022, about 1.5 million Minnesotans cast ballots. In the last primary for an open gubernatorial seat, 2018, there were 321,000 votes for Republicans and 583,000 votes for Democratic candidates. Those totals are in spite of ballots in 2018 that included a well-known former governor on the GOP side and three credible, long time contenders among the Democrats.

Put those totals into the politics of 2026. The winner of the three-way Republican contest might need fewer than 125,000 votes. In the high-stakes race to be the Democratic nominee for the Senate, 300,000 votes almost certainly will be enough.

Minnesota’s political primaries are as confusing as they are important. Too many people think they don’t matter, that one has to publicly declare partisan allegiance in order to cast a ballot or that a vote in August dictates how one votes in the November election. None of that is true.

The same eligibility rules for the general election in November apply to primary voters, including same-day registration (voting requirements are available at https://www.sos.mn.gov/elections-voting/register-to-vote/). Minnesota does not require party registration to vote in primaries or in November. In November, a voter can cast a ballot for the candidate of one party in the gubernatorial race and a candidate of another party in a congressional race, for example. Not so in the primary. You can only vote in one party’s primary. However, your vote remains secret and the choices you make in the primary do not limit your November selections.

And that brings us to a recommendation. I am voting in the Democratic primary. If today’s Republican Party were the party of my first decades in politics and the GOP candidate were of the caliber of my former boss Dave Durenberger, I would still be on that side of the ledger. That is not the case, and hasn’t been so for many years. The Republican Party exists in name only; in every other way, it is the Trump Party and that is unacceptable to me.

I also will vote in the Democratic primary because I believe it includes the most important contested race in either party this year. Yes, the Republicans have a spirited gubernatorial contest but, frankly, it is unlikely any of the contenders will beat Amy Klobuchar.

Angie Craig, my choice, winning over Peggy Flanagan makes a difference. Craig has shown her ability to get things done since first being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. She has played a key role on significant legislation from health care to agriculture. Her experience as a Minnesota business executive is an enormous asset in a Congress increasingly populated by those who have lived mostly political lives.

Craig has proven to be a collaborator who can work across the aisle. The well-respected Lugar Bipartisan Index ranks her in the top 20% of all House members. She embodies the essence of the index: “Embracing bipartisanship does not require leaders to alter their political principles or support policy proposals that they fundamentally oppose. But it does require them to ensure that their responsibility to govern is not paralyzed by their ideology or undercut by their pursuit of partisan political advantage.”

Sometimes, collaboration goes too far and legislators cast a vote or two that he or she comes to regret. Liberal icon Paul Wellstone, facing a tough reelection in 1996, voted against marriage equality, a decision he questioned later in his career. So, too, Craig has a cringe-worthy vote: her support in 2024 for the Laken Riley Act that expanded federal immigration authority. Although the bill is not as sweeping as Flanagan claims, Craig has acknowledged it was the wrong decision and has worked since to hold ICE accountable to the Constitution, the rule of law and common decency.

There is another reason to support Craig. She can win. Typically, voters can take a long-term perspective on electing senators. They serve for six years and it often takes time for a new member to grow into the role. The luxury of time doesn’t exist today. President Trump is doing more damage to the country and the world by the day. His last two years in office will be devastating if he is not reined in by Congress. It seems likely the House will be narrowly Democratic; the Senate probably will be evenly divided, a slight edge one way or the other. The country needs senators who are able to build coalitions across the aisle to hold Trump in check. The country can’t afford senators eager to stand alone on small islands of unachievable dreams. Craig is far more likely than the more partisan and intensely liberal Flanagan to be an effective senator in building the coalitions that will hold Trump in check.

Minnesota politics are changing – the red districts have become much more red than the blue districts have turned blue. In 2024, Royce White – probably the worst statewide candidate ever nominated by the major parties – still was able to flip 30 counties from blue to red against Amy Klobuchar, arguably the most popular Minnesota politician of the day. Yes, having Trump on the ticket in 2024 helped the GOP. But Flanagan and her ties to the deeply unpopular Gov. Tim Walz run the risk of energizing the Republican base in 2026. Minnesota and the country can’t afford another MAGA senator or one so far to the other extreme that she will be in a small group of those more interested in making a statement when they should be making a difference.

Angie Craig will be a difference-maker in the U.S. Senate. But she won’t have that opportunity if she doesn’t win the primary Aug. 11 (early voting already has begun). The contest between her and Flanagan is extremely close, with the outcome likely decided by a small handful of votes. You can make the difference by making a statement with your ballot.