Minnesota Senate race: What Flanagan and Tafoya attack ads leave out
Attack ads rock Minnesota Senate race
Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race between Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Michele Tafoya is drawing a wave of intense attack ads as it becomes the state's most expensive campaign. The Flanagan campaign is actively tying Tafoya to President Trump's policies, while Tafoya’s ads are targeting Flanagan’s personal finances, with both sides accusing the other of omitting crucial context. FOX 9's Corin Hoggard has more.
(FOX 9) - Attack ads are stacking up in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, and both sides say the other is leaving out key context.
How the Senate ads frame the race
What we know:
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Michele Tafoya and their supporters are launching attack lines as they fight for an open Senate seat.
One ad links Tafoya to President Trump, while another questions how Flanagan’s finances changed between 2018 and 2026.
Local perspective:
"She backed his war with its crazy gas prices, his tariffs, his ICE force," said a Flanagan ad.
Tafoya did support the war in Iran, but she started opposing it during the campaign.
Her support for the president’s tariffs and ICE actions in Minnesota is also more nuanced and conditional.
The other side:
"And while Flanagan and Walz spent eight years failing, she somehow became a millionaire. Peggy got rich. The Minnesotans got ripped off," said a Tafoya ad.
The Flanagan campaign called that attack a "repugnant smear" because it compares Flanagan’s finances as a single woman in 2018 with her bank account in 2026 as a married woman who also inherited money when her mother died in 2022.
Tafoya’s financial reports show she has between four and 40 times Flanagan’s wealth, and her campaign did not respond to emails FOX 9 sent starting on Monday.
Why campaigns keep leaning on attacks
Dig deeper:
Hamline University political science professor David Schultz says the strategy is not just about changing minds.
He says attack ads can also excite loyal voters and discourage some people from backing the other candidate.
"What they want to try to do is to get their base hot and bothered. Get them excited to say, ‘look, the other side is a horrible person, come out and vote’," said Schultz.
Schultz says there is also evidence attack ads can suppress at least a small number of votes.
"What you hope to do to is to discourage them from voting for your opponent by attacking them. If you can't get them to vote for you, at least not get them to vote the opponent," said Schultz.
What we don't know:
AdImpact estimates spending on the Senate race to reach nearly $75 million, but where it’s intended to impact is unclear. Schultz says national Republicans are spending more than usual because they think the race might be close and because it could force national Democrats to spend money in Minnesota rather than in Kansas, Iowa or Texas – all of which are unexpected battlegrounds this year.
"Even if the polls are not close, they don't want their voters to get complacent and say, ah, Flanagan's got a lead or Tafoya's got to lead. I don't need to go vote. Create the horse race to make sure your base comes out," said Schultz.
The Source: FOX 9’s Corin Hoggard, campaign ads, campaign responses and Hamline University political science professor David Schultz.