{"id":35392,"date":"2026-08-09T23:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T18:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=35392"},"modified":"2026-08-09T23:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T18:44:11","slug":"trumps-immigration-crackdown-looms-over-minnesotas-bruising-senate-primary-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=35392","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown looms over Minnesota\u2019s bruising Senate primary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/09\/Election_2_26_Minnesota_Senate_42617_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 In the streets surrounding a drab federal office complex next to the Minneapolis airport, the beleaguered resistance to President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump<\/a> found its footing.<\/p>\n<p>As U.S. immigration agents staged at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building for a monthslong deportation campaign, protesters with whistles and cellphone cameras assembled to oppose them. Two were shot and killed in the city\u2019s streets before Trump pulled back under pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Months later, those confrontations remain the backdrop to Minnesota\u2019s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, which features establishment-backed U.S. Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/angie-craig\/\">Angie Craig<\/a> and the more progressive Lt. Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/peggy-flanagan\/\">Peggy Flanagan<\/a>. The immigration debate is an added schism in a race that otherwise echoes many of the other left versus center divides that have played out across the United States this year.<\/p>\n<p>Craig voted for tighter enforcement soon after Trump returned to office last year, only to later express regret for her decision after the Republican president sent a surge of agents into Minneapolis. She backed a resolution that condemned antisemitism after a 2025 firebombing in Boulder, Colorado, and expressed thanks for law enforcement, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.<\/p>\n<p>Those votes may turn out to be some of the most fraught of Craig\u2019s eight-year career in Congress, decisions that Flanagan has highlighted while trying to portray her rival as unwilling to fight an unpopular administration in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that\u2019s when she lost my vote permanently and that\u2019s why I will not vote for her no matter what,\u201d said Bryce Bohne, 40, of Minneapolis. The teacher and owner of an educational tourism company is supporting Flanagan.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/multimedia\/collection\/trumps-immigration-crackdown-looms-2026-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">PHOTOS: Trump&#8217;s immigration crackdown looms over Minnesota&#8217;s bruising Senate primary<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin-bottom: 15px;\"\/>\n<p>Around the Whipple federal building, the fences and barriers are down. The ambient soundtrack is no longer the whistles and chants of protesters, just the rumble of departing jets and passing buses.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>But the signs of what happened remain. A few volunteers in bright orange vests keep vigil across the street for 12-plus hours a day, ready to help people getting released from immigration detention or leaving hearings at the immigration court inside.<\/p>\n<p>A few miles away, visitors still bring fresh flowers and handwritten notes to memorials marking the spots where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed.<\/p>\n<h3>Craig is no stranger to tough races, but until now the heat was from the right<\/h3>\n<p>Craig flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018, and every two years she overcame millions of dollars of attack ads to win tough reelection campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>Until Craig\u2019s Senate run, the heat came from the right. Newly under fire from the other side, the decisions she made as a swing-seat congresswoman have become a liability as a statewide Senate candidate. At one recent event, she adopted the language of the insurgent left, though it did not always seem to come naturally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe working class keeps getting screwed,\u201d she told volunteers preparing to knock on doors for her Saturday in Brooklyn Park, a Minneapolis suburb. \u201cFolks, I don\u2019t know about you, but it is time that we had a working folks reno- reso- renovation-\u201c<\/p>\n<p>Here, she took a breath.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c-revolution in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Craig\u2019s view, she is well suited to the antiestablishment fervor gaining a foothold in the Democratic Party. Raised by a single mother in an Arkansas trailer park, she has known economic hardship. The lesbian mother of four grown children, she is not the archetype of a traditional member of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>She was one of the House Democrats to call for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race after his disastrous debate performance against Trump. As a relatively junior member of Congress, she pushed successfully to become the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, jumping ahead of long-tenured colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI consider myself a progressive\u201d she told reporters after her event Saturday. \u201cEvery race that I run, Republicans run ads against me saying I vote with Democrats 96, 97% of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, in the primary,\u201d she added, \u201cpeople want to point out the few votes I\u2019ve taken against Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018I regret my vote,\u2019 Craig wrote in a mea culpa<\/h3>\n<p>Chief among them was the Laken Riley Act, the first bill passed by Congress after Trump started his second term. It requires federal authorities to detain migrants accused of theft and violent crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Craig and nearly 60 other Democrats in the House and Senate voted for the bill early in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>But at the end of the year, as immigration officers descended on Minneapolis, that vote became a liability. Weeks after Good and Pretti were killed, Craig published a mea culpa in a Minnesota Star Tribune column.<\/p>\n<p>Craig explained that although she had qualms with parts of the law, it had the support of Democrats she respected, and many of her constituents were unhappy with the situation on the border under Biden.<\/p>\n<p>But the \u201coutright occupation by aggressive, unaccountable federal forces\u201d made clear to her \u201cthat supporting any bill that gives ICE new authority in this administration was the wrong decision. And I regret my vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s immigration operation, she says, was not enabled by her vote on the Laken Riley Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore that, people had a little bit more sensibility about the fact she was in a tough district and had to take tough votes,\u201d said Corey Day, former executive director of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.<\/p>\n<p>Craig has since presented herself as a strong defender of Minnesotans against Trump. She says her record of winning tough races positions her to ensure the seat stays in Democratic hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngie has experience working across demographics that we need to win over statewide, including in rural Minnesota,\u201d said Kevin Anderson, a Hennepin County commissioner who is supporting Craig and went to one of her weekend events. \u201cI love Peggy, I really do, she\u2019s a great politician. But I don\u2019t think she\u2019s ever had to work across Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has declined to endorse either candidate for the seat held by Democrat Tina Smith, who is not running again. Late last month his wife, Gwen Walz, endorsed Craig over Flanagan, his governing partner for two terms.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican field includes Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter.<\/p>\n<h3>Flanagan supporters are suspicious of Craig<\/h3>\n<p>To Flanagan and her supporters, Craig\u2019s vote for the immigration bill was not a pragmatic overture to swing voters but a betrayal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy primary opponent voted for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> immigration bill and was the only Minnesota Democrat to do so,\u201d Flanagan told volunteers in St. Paul on Saturday. \u201cShe since then has said that she regrets that vote, and I\u2019m glad. But it shouldn\u2019t have taken 14 months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can stand with the immigrant community and not just when it\u2019s politically expedient for us,\u201d Flanagan added.<\/p>\n<p>Like Abdul El-Sayed, who won last week\u2019s Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, Flanagan supports Medicare for All and wants to curtail U.S. military support for Israel. She is running as much against the donors who have spent millions of dollars backing Craig as she is against Craig herself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that the money is coming from us and only us makes such a huge difference, because she\u2019s beholden to us, not some billionaire with some business or crypto interest,\u201d said 43-year-old Flanagan supporter Justin Ropella, a customer service manager from Woodbury.<\/p>\n<p>Through July 22, Craig\u2019s campaign had spent $9 million and Flanagan\u2019s $5.5 million. The disparity was even higher among outside groups, with Craig backers spending considerably more, though both have benefited from an influx of outside spending.<\/p>\n<p>To help make up the difference, Flanagan has called on the support of progressive champions such as Sen. Bernie Sanders the Vermont independent who campaigned with her last month.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the people of Minnesota can stand up \u2014 and I\u2019m confident that they can \u2014 and tell these billionaires and their lies and their 30-second ads and their super PACs to go to hell, democracy is going to reign,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 In the streets surrounding a drab federal office complex next to the Minneapolis airport, the beleaguered resistance to President Donald Trump found its footing. As U.S. immigration agents staged at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building for a monthslong deportation campaign, protesters with whistles and cellphone cameras assembled to oppose them. Two were&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/09\/Election_2_26_Minnesota_Senate_42617_c0-237-5692-3557_s1200x700.jpg?24c221fa41076d154f1e0ce52f84add4144f26f5","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}