‘Disgusting’: Minnesota Senate Race Gets Hostile After ICE Shooting | EUROtoday

President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration brokers into Minneapolis and an ICE officer’s taking pictures of a civilian there has blown up the already-existing ideological divide within the Democratic main for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat, turning the race sharply damaging.

Progressive Senate hopeful Peggy Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor, has accused her average opponent Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) of fixing her tune on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid the furor over the company’s often-violent ways.

“This Senate race is a fundamental question about whether or not we’re going to have a United States senator who sticks to their values and truths, or someone who votes with Republicans and Donald Trump when it’s politically expedient,” Flanagan mentioned in an interview with HuffPost. “I can tell you which side I’m on.”

Meanwhile, Craig, who has lengthy represented a swing district outdoors Minneapolis, known as Flanagan’s assaults “disgusting” and mentioned she must give attention to pushing again the surge of immigration officers into the state and bringing criminals who dedicated fraud to justice.

“I would advise the lieutenant governor to join me in this fight against the Trump administration and this lawless thug group of ICE agents in Minnesota, instead of taking this opportunity to attack a fellow Democrat,” Craig advised HuffPost.

“What she’s doing right now sounds just like it came out of the MAGA playbook, and frankly, it pisses me off,” the lawmaker added.

Democrats must retain the seat held by retiring Sen. Tina Smith to have any probability of successful the Senate in 2026. Minnesota’s basic Democratic lean and the rising backlash to Trump’s unpopular presidency ought to assist whoever wins the nomination, however Republicans are gleefully searching for alternatives to capitalize on intraparty divides.

Last January, Craig voted for the Laken Riley Act, which gave Trump new powers to detain immigrants accused of crimes. In June, she joined 74 different Democrats in voting for a Republican decision that condemned antisemitism following an assault in opposition to Israel supporters in Colorado and in addition expressed gratitude to ICE and different legislation enforcement officers amid Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

Flanagan has pointed to each votes as the explanation why Craig shouldn’t be trusted with the Senate nomination.

Craig known as the ICE decision a “gotcha” measure designed to divide Democrats. Nevertheless, she mentioned she voted for it to ship a message opposing the rise of antisemitism throughout the nation.

“You make difficult choices on these Republican gotcha bills every single day when you’re serving,” she mentioned. “And so I would ask, would the lieutenant governor have voted against a resolution to condemn antisemitism?” (A majority of the House Democratic caucus voted in opposition to the decision.)

Craig has taken a a lot stronger stance in opposition to ICE since final summer time, nonetheless, together with by demanding its officers go away the state she represents and serving to introduce articles of impeachment in opposition to the girl who oversees the company, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. To underscore her level, she held up a cardboard signal at a marketing campaign occasion over the weekend that merely learn: “Impeach Kristi Noem.”

Over the weekend, Craig sought to enter an ICE detention facility with different Minnesota House Democrats outdoors Minneapolis however was blocked by DHS officers from doing so. That adopted a heated confrontation with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) final week wherein the 2 lawmakers engaged in a shouting match on the ground of the House of Representatives over Good’s taking pictures and Emmer’s help for ICE.

The expenses of political expediency in opposition to Craig illustrate how navigating the Trump period — and Americans’ quickly shifting views on immigration enforcement, from a want for a pointy crackdown in 2024 to revulsion at ICE’s ways right now — may show troublesome for average Democrats hoping to win occasion primaries dominated by an citizens that loathes all the things the president touches.

And it’s not simply in Minnesota. Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s Democratic marketing campaign for Senate equally attacked certainly one of her main opponents, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, over his vote expressing “gratitude” for ICE final 12 months.

Republicans see immigration and the welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota as two points that may assist them flip a Senate seat within the state, one thing they haven’t been in a position to do since former Sen. Norm Coleman narrowly received his bid for the higher chamber in 2002. The occasion has began to rally behind Michele Tafoya, a former sideline reporter on ‘Monday Night Football’ who give up to launch a profession as a conservative information character, as their candidate within the state.

On Monday, all 53 Senate Republicans despatched a letter to Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz (D) urgent him for extra details about the allegations of fraud involving federal youngster care funding in his state. Walz just lately give up his marketing campaign for a 3rd time period to take care of the matter.

Flanagan, as Walz’s lieutenant, will possible face related questions if she wins the Democratic Senate main. Asked if that fearful her, Flanagan known as fraud “completely unacceptable” and deferred to Walz’s efforts bringing criminals to justice.

“The governor has said that the buck stops with him, and has also said, you know, that he’s really taken the lead here,” she advised HuffPost.

But Craig warned that the scandal may put the Senate seat in danger if Flanagan turns into the nominee.

“She’s the second-highest-ranking officer in state government, and instead of taking any responsibility or accountability, she actually has been throwing Governor Walz under the bus every time she gets a question about fraud,” she mentioned. “It’s going to be a significant issue in the Senate race for her finish line.”

Neither candidate has embraced abolishing ICE, a motion that turned standard with progressives throughout Trump’s first time period. Flanagan advised as an alternative a “complete and total overhaul” of the company. Both Democrats are additionally in settlement on withholding funding for ICE forward of a Jan. 31 appropriations deadline in Congress.

“We should not be funding an agency that is causing such chaos, terror and pain, especially now that someone has lost their life,” Flanagan insisted to HuffPost.

Describing how her 78-year-old aunt was just lately “forced off the road” and “surrounded” by ICE brokers in her automobile, Flanagan mentioned, “This is an entity that is making all of us less safe.”

The two Democrats have an extended combat forward of them. Minnesota voters don’t go to the polls to find out their Senate nominee for one more six months.