Tag: Minnesota

Minnesota U.S. Senate: No Endorsement, but a Detailed Evaluation

CIVPAC evaluation of the 2026 Minnesota U.S. Senate race between Peggy Flanagan and Michele Tafoya

CIVPAC has completed its review of the 2026 Minnesota U.S. Senate race between Peggy Flanagan and Michele Tafoya.

This is a different kind of non-endorsement.

We did not conclude that neither candidate is acceptable. Instead, our criteria point in different directions. Flanagan is closer to CIVPAC on issues including Ukraine and NATO, reproductive freedom and the value of divided government. Tafoya is closer on market economics, reduced taxes and regulation, law enforcement and limiting federal spending. Both also depart from CIVPAC in important ways, and several of Tafoya’s positions on major Senate issues remain insufficiently developed.

The result illustrates why political choices cannot always be reduced to a checklist. Two centrist independent voters could agree with every CIVPAC policy position—and even agree with our evaluation of both candidates—yet reasonably vote differently because they assign different weights to the competing issues.

Rather than manufacture an endorsement, we have tried to give Minnesota voters the information needed to make that judgment for themselves.

Read the full Minnesota U.S. Senate evaluation.

See CIVPAC’s complete 2026 endorsements and evaluations.

And if you know of additional candidate positions that would help resolve some of the unanswered questions, we invite you to comment. Better information could yet lead us to an endorsement.

CIVPAC Endorses Angie Craig and Matt Klein in Minnesota

Illustrated Minnesota scene featuring the state outline, North Star, State Capitol, Minneapolis skyline, Stone Arch Bridge, pine forests and a loon.

Minnesota voters face two important Democratic primaries on August 11. CIVPAC has endorsed Representative Angie Craig for the open United States Senate seat and state Senator Matt Klein in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District.

Angie Craig offers the strongest combination of legislative experience, political pragmatism and general-election appeal in the Senate field. She has repeatedly won a competitive congressional district and understands that Democrats must speak to rural, suburban and independent voters as well as the party’s most committed activists.

Our endorsement of Matt Klein is more comparative. We disagree with several of his economic and health-care positions, but his experience as a physician and state senator makes him the best available choice to succeed Craig in a politically competitive district. His principal opponents are substantially farther from CIVPAC on health care, immigration enforcement, economic policy and military assistance to Israel. His potential Republican opponent, Eric Pratt, is unopposed in the primary. We will revisit the race after the Democratic primary is over.

These endorsements do not imply complete agreement with either candidate. They reflect CIVPAC’s continuing effort to identify the most pragmatic and responsible choices available to primary voters.

See all of our current recommendations on the 2026 CIVPAC Candidate Endorsements page.