President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration agents into Minneapolis and an ICE officer’s shooting of a civilian there has blown up the already-existing ideological divide in the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat, turning the race sharply negative.
Progressive Senate hopeful Peggy Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor, has accused her moderate opponent Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) of changing her tune on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid the furor over the agency’s often-violent tactics.
“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 said in an interview with HuffPost. “I can tell you which side I’m on.”
Meanwhile, Craig, who has long represented a swing district outside Minneapolis, called Flanagan’s attacks “disgusting” and said she ought to focus on pushing back the surge of immigration officers into the state and bringing criminals who committed 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 told HuffPost.
