The battle for Minnesota's open U.S. Senate seat has come to an end, with Democrat Peggy Flanagan defeating Republican Michele Tafoya Tuesday in a race that pitted a former national sports broadcaster against one of the state's most radical Democrat politicians.
According to Decision Desk HQ, Flanagan received 54.59 percent of the vote compared to Tafoya's 42.84 percent, with 73 percent of the vote counted.
Decision Desk HQ projects Peggy Flanagan wins the MN US Senate General Election #DecisionMade: 12:03 AM EST Follow live results here: https://t.co/b3rJTttlEA https://t.co/vGRFguOed9
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 4, 2026
Tafoya, best known for her years as an NFL sideline reporter, faced Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the race to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), who announced she would not seek another term.
Tafoya, who left the increasingly left-leaning world of sports broadcasting to forge a career in conservative political commentary, entered the contest hoping to pull off an upset Republican Senate victory in a state that has backed Democrats in federal elections for the last few decades.
Flanagan, meanwhile, is a hard-left radical who has served as failed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz's lieutenant governor since 2019. She has embraced some of the Democrat Party's most radical positions, including allowing biological males to compete in girls' sports and defending gender-transition treatments for minors. In an August CNN interview, Flanagan refused to say whether she supported any minimum age restrictions on such treatments, even when asked specifically about 10-year-olds.
Polling consistently showed Flanagan with the lead, although the size of that lead depended on the poll. The final RealClearPolling average showed her leading Tafoya by 5.2 percentage points, 48.9 percent to 43.7 percent. A late October New York Times/Siena survey gave Flanagan a whopping 14-point lead, but an AtlasIntel poll conducted during the last few days of the campaign found a much tighter two-point race. RealClearPolling rated the contest as leaning Democrat, leaving Tafoya hoping for a significant Election Day upset.
Minnesota has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since Norm Coleman's victory in 2002.
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