GOP finds its next progressive target in Minnesota

Republicans have a new name on their growing list of progressive midterm targets: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, fresh off a landslide Senate primary win.

Why it matters: With President Trump's approval ratings in the 30s, Republicans are trying to turn the midterms from a referendum on him into a choice between the GOP and a Democratic Party they argue has moved sharply to the left.

• That means portraying some progressive Democrats who've won statewide primaries as national foils. The strategy came into focus last week, after Abdul El-Sayed's victory in Michigan's Senate primary.

Republicans will aim to make El-Sayed and liberal podcaster Hasan Piker into focal points of their upcoming midterm convention in Dallas.

• GOP operatives have been collecting video of El-Sayed, Piker and other prominent liberals for use in attack reels at the Sept. 9-10 convention.
• Trump already has attacked El-Sayed over his Muslim faith, accusing Democrats after his win of nominating "jihadists" — which liberals denounced as Islamophobic.

Now, Republicans are zeroing in on Flanagan.

• After Tuesday's primary, the conservative X account End Wokeness posted a video of Flanagan wearing a hijab, which she had worn during a 2025 visit to a mosque. Pro-Trump activist Jack Posobiec posted a link to a story that included a picture of Flanagan wearing a "protect trans kids" T-shirt.
• The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a video describing her as an "extremist."

Zoom in: GOP operatives see lines of attack in Flanagan's support for dismantling ICE and support for transgender rights, and her ties to progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

• Republicans also plan to tout the Minnesota fraud scandals that unfolded during Flanagan's tenure as lieutenant governor as evidence of liberal mismanagement.

State of play: Republicans haven't won a statewide race in Minnesota in two decades, and limited spring polling showed Flanagan leading the GOP's Senate nominee, former NFL reporter Michele Tafoya.

• National GOP strategists are watching the race closely to measure how much to invest in it.

Tafoya has been invited to a donor retreat in California later this month that will be hosted by the pro-GOP Senate Leadership Fund's super PAC.

• Republicans grew more bullish about Tafoya's chances Tuesday after state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won Minnesota's GOP primary for governor over MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, an election conspiracy theorist whom GOP operatives feared would have alienated independents and dragged down the party's ticket.

• Even if Republicans can't defeat Flanagan, they hope to force Democrats to spend resources defending the seat being vacated by Amy Klobuchar, who won the Democratic primary for governor.

Yes, but: Republicans face a tough political environment in Minnesota, where Trump has a 37% approval rating.

• Flanagan showed political strength in the primary, defeating a better-funded and more moderate Democratic opponent by 20 points.
• Republicans are also grappling with fallout from the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers deployed there by Trump's administration.

The other side: Flanagan is tying Tafoya to Trump, including by highlighting Tafoya's comments that Minnesotans should "take one less trip to Starbucks" and accept temporary economic pain during the U.S.-Iran war.

"Republicans can throw around false labels all they want, but it won't distract Minnesotans from the reality that Donald Trump is abusing his authority every single day, while his failed economy makes life harder for working families," a Flanagan spokesperson Lexi Byler told Axios.

• Tafoya "would be just another loyal vote for Trump," Byler added, "and Minnesotans will reject her just as they have rejected him."