Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig will not seek the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsement at a state convention this weekend, even as she sets her sights on winning the party’s Senate nomination in an August primary.

Her decision essentially clears the way for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan to win the party endorsement this weekend. 

“I’m a proud DFLer. Every letter has meaning to me,” Craig said at a Wednesday press conference, according to remarks shared by her campaign. “But the DFL endorsement process just doesn’t reflect the full scope of the party that we are. And the purple state that we have become.”

Craig, a centrist House member who flipped a seat in 2018, has been seeking the Senate nomination against Flanagan in a tense campaign that has focused largely on immigration enforcement in the wake of the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis earlier this year. 

Flanagan has criticized Craig for her 2025 vote for an immigration bill known as the Laken Riley Act, which the congresswoman said earlier this year she regretted. 

In Minnesota, the party endorsement can unlock support for the candidate leading up to the primary, in which voters ultimately pick the nominee. 

“No matter what she says about the process, Congresswoman Craig spent months aggressively competing for this endorsement because she understood how significant it is,” Lexi Byler, a spokesperson for Flanagan’s campaign, said in a statement. “It’s clear that Peggy Flanagan is the consensus candidate.”

In some prior cases, candidates have foregone or lost the party nomination and still gone on to win the primary. In 2018, then-Rep. Tim Walz lost the DFL endorsement but went on to win the gubernatorial primary and the first of his two terms in that office. Similarly, former Sen. Mark Dayton narrowly won the party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2010 after dropping out of the endorsement process earlier in the year. He also won two terms as governor.

In an email Wednesday, Flanagan’s team said this year’s endorsement process differed from those cases because the convention electorate is not as fractured as it has been in past years. Polls have shown Flanagan, who has earned support from several progressives, with a lead over Craig. 

Still, Craig has a fundraising advantage over Flanagan that could help her continue her campaign this summer. Craig had $4.9 million on hand at the end of March to Flanagan’s $1.9 million. 

National Republicans have backed former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya, who faces several other candidates running for the party’s nomination. Republicans had hoped Minnesota could emerge as a pickup opportunity in this year’s elections after Walz, who had previously planned to run for a third term as governor, came under scrutiny for a statewide fraud scandal involving social service programs.

The open seat contest came about because of the retirement of incumbent Democratic Sen. Tina Smith.

But the presence of federal immigration officers in the state — which led to the shooting deaths of two people in Minneapolis — put an even greater spotlight on the state and prompted progressives to push back on the administration. 

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the Senate race as Likely Democratic.