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Hello, and welcome. The state of Minnesota has suffered horribly during the Trump regime, especially the raids that ICE brought to Minnesota cities, the killing of American citizens in Minneapolis streets. So the last thing in the world Minnesota needs is a Republican senator. Peggy Flanagan is a phenomenal Democratic candidate for Senate. Washington desperately needs senators like her. She’s a transcend champion. She believes in accountability. She is anti-corruption, and she will stand up for the people of Minnesota against the horrors of ICE and the trauma inflicted on her state by the Trump regime. Her Republican opponent will do none of those things because she will just be a rubber stab for anything Donald wants her to do.
Please check out Peggy’s campaign HERE
I am here with Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota who is running to represent Minnesota in the US Senate and when she’s elected, she’ll be the first Native American woman to serve in the Senate. Peggy, it is so fantastic to have you here. How are you holding up?
Peggy Flanagan: I mean, I’m doing great. Thanks so much for having me. And we can see election day on the horizon. So now it’s just all about getting out the vote.
Mary Trump: It is incredible. And I want people to know right out of the gate that this race is tightening, which seems unfathomable to me, but Minnesota has been kind of trending in interesting directions over the last few cycles. So Cook Political Report has moved this race from likely Democrat to leans Democrat, which means before we even get started, please everybody go donate to Peggy Flanagan’s campaign HERE .
Money later in the race actually is crucially, crucially important as is this race. So let’s get into this. You have quite an opponent. The race is essentially close to being tied at this point. Donald has invested in this because he understands how devastating it would be for Democrats to get a majority in the Senate, which is infinitely more likely if you take this seat. So what do people need to know? Let’s start with your opponent because Donald recently endorsed her and it seems pretty clear that she will be a tool of his were she to be elected. And it seems to me that she’s on the wrong side of every issue that should be important to Minnesotans.
Peggy Flanagan: Mary, I think that’s a fair assessment. And we know in the final weeks of this campaign, Michelle DeFoya is trying to reinvent herself, but I think Minnesotans are smarter than that. As you said, Donald Trump endorsed her last week and then called her terrific, said that he would come to the state a couple of times on her behalf, to which I say come on in. And I would just say this, we know that Donald Trump doesn’t give out his endorsement willy-nilly. In fact, there are members of his own party who have dared to push back in the slightest and then they feel his wrath of supporting their opponent. So what I know is that Michelle DeFoya has passed Donald Trump’s litmus test with flying colors. She was all in for the trade wars, the tariffs. She said that ICE should be called nice and that they’ve treated children really, really well.
On the day that Renee Goode was killed, she blamed her for her own death on a podcast. She called January 6th insurrectionists, who she platformed on her podcast, her brothers and really good people, and has gone on to support the big ugly bill and the cuts to Medicaid and the cuts to SNAP, the things that are devastating Minnesotans and went so far as to support this war for 216 days until she realized that it was politically unpopular and changed her tune. So I know that Minnesotans are so much smarter than that. And she said she’d be honored to receive Trump’s endorsement just earlier this year. So congratulations, she’s received it. And also on the issue of choice where I think Minnesotans have been very clear that they believe that we should be able to make our own decisions about our own bodies with our doctors.
She said that she was completely aligned with Trump on this issue and that she committed to vote for conservative justices at the Federal and Supreme Court level. Since then has now called herself a pro-choice Republican. But if you are aligned with Donald Trump on abortion, you can absolutely not call yourself pro-choice. So Donald Trump’s all for Michelle Tafoya and I think it’s a badge of honor that he’s not supporting me and I am all in for Minnesotans and that’s really the choice in this race.
Mary Trump: Yeah, absolutely. It seems very clear from outside of the state. And it seems to be the case with Republican candidates in general, but particularly Republican candidates who do get Donald’s endorsement, they do not have their fingers on the pulse of what is best for the people they want to have as their constituents. I believe Tafoya said that Minnesotans who are having trouble paying for basic goods like gasoline should just take one less trip to Starbucks, for example, as if that’s the problem. And unlike her, you actually do understand Minnesotan struggles. You yourself were raised by a single mom. You were held by essential government programs that the Trump regime is gutting, starting with what I call the big abominable bill. So can you talk a little bit about your understanding of how important it is to make sure that these programs are not just kept intact but strengthened and the difference that could make to families in your state?
Peggy Flanagan: I mean, absolutely. As you mentioned, I’m a kid who grew up on the margins. SNAP was what kept food on the table for my family. Section 8 paid the rent. I am alive because of Medicaid. And so these programs are incredibly important, but as we’ve seen just the cuts to Medicaid specifically, 170,000 Minnesotans are going to lose their healthcare. It is impacting rural hospitals and clinics. I was in East Grand Forks and there’s one nursing home in town. If that closes, that means not only the people who receive their care there, but the folks who work there, the local businesses that provide goods and services, the local economy takes a hit. And taking one less trip to Starbucks, but continuing to support this president’s agenda will lead to just really dire consequences. And I’m someone who knows what it feels like to think the bottom could fall out at any moment.
That is the experience of so many Minnesotans right now, and it doesn’t have to be this way. And it’s in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires who don’t need them, that we’re taking food off the table and taking away people’s healthcare. It’s outrageous. I think folks are interested in making sure that we’re no longer paying for gilded ballrooms and bombs, but actually delivering on things like Medicare for all, raising wages and ending this war, which has been costing us certainly at the pump and in our pocketbooks, but also the lives of 21 servicemen and women, including one Minnesotan. And so the stakes are too high to give Donald Trump another yes vote.
Mary Trump: What you just said, it resonates because we are once again in this place in this country where the bottom could fall out for many people at any given time in many different ways. And you name some of them, from food insecurity to the massive spike in prices for essential goods and of course healthcare. And I believe you had very bad childhood asthma, as did I. And Medicaid is what allowed you to get the medical care you needed because for those of you who don’t know, you can die from a very bad asthma attack. I too was in and out of the hospital often and that’s expensive. And this administration is also worsening the conditions that would increase cases of asthma across the country. So people are being impacted in ways that haven’t quite been borne out yet. We know things will get worse in 2027 as soon as a lot of these things kick in, if there isn’t a party to push back.
And obviously that’s the Democratic party. And you mentioned that your opponent is not only she is allegedly now pro-choice, but we’re pretty sure that she would support a new abortion ban. And that would also then make it difficult for doctors to practice, that OB-GYNs to practice their profession and help women’s reproductive health in a state like Minnesota, which is kind of unthinkable. So is that resonating with the people you’re talking to? Are all those issues resonating with the people you’re talking to?
Peggy Flanagan: They certainly are. And I think the thing that Minnesotans care about, we don’t have to agree on everything, but I think they really care about authenticity and that you are who you say you are. And this is the moment where we don’t know which version of Michelle Tafoya we’re going to get. In the Republican primary, she was all in on all these issues and now suddenly is trying to reinvent herself. I mean, for goodness sakes, she’s got critiques now of ICE and Operation Metro Surge when she literally used footage from Operation Metro Surge and her campaign rollout video. So I think when someone tells you who they are, you should believe them and that we need to make sure that we have got folks in place who are going to hold Trump accountable. And I think I’m a Minnesota gal, we can do two things at once, which is holding these folks accountable, oversight, investigations, and fighting to restore these cuts to Medicaid and to SNAP and then working towards raising wages, Medicare for all, universal childcare, ending this war, the things that are really going to get folks back on their feet.
And that’s my priority. And for goodness sakes, Michelle Tafoya literally sent a fundraising text, I think it was last week that said she’s running to protect Trump’s majority in the Senate. Well, just believe her. She’s told us who she is. And frankly, that’s all I need to know and a lot of Minnesotans need to know.
Mary Trump: And I want briefly to talk about ICE Metro Surge and the extraordinary response Minnesotans had to that. It was both heartbreaking and heartening and just as it was both tragedy and travesty. Your state has been through so much in the last couple of years because of a government agency that is being run by the worst among us. And I think that having a Republican running who’s interested in protecting the regime that made all of that happen is something that all of us should be interested in preventing. So how are Minnesotans feeling in the wake of what’s happened and what is the attitude towards ICE and certainly towards a politician who seems all in on the regime that brought ICE to your state?
Peggy Flanagan: Well, I think the national news media might’ve moved on, but we are still here dealing with the economic impact, dealing with, of course, the killings of two Minnesotans, Alex Pretti and Renee Goode, and Renee Goode’s family has now had to sue the federal government to get any semblance of justice for her and her family. And we know that Liam Conejo Ramos, the little five-year-old in the bunny hat who was scooped up, detained and sent into Texas, that there are 6,200 children who have been detained by Trump’s ICE.
We can have an immigration system that’s grounded in secure borders and public safety for everybody, humanity, dignity, and a pathway to citizenship. What we see right now is not it. And all of the incredible organizing work that started in response of neighbors looking out for neighbors, delivering food, standing on street corners outside of places of worship with whistles and vests and marching 50,000 strong through the streets of Minneapolis and negative 30 below temperatures on behalf of our neighbors, that organizing work then translated into people going to their caucuses and then voting in the primary.
And now that organizing work is headed towards the general election. And I think that’s the thing that we are able to demonstrate is that in Minnesota, we are not powerless against Donald Trump. In fact, we are quite powerful. We’ve demonstrated it in the streets at the ballot box, and we’re going to do it one more time on November 3rd when we reject these cruel, chaotic, divisive politics. He wants us to turn on each other and we’re going to consistently turn towards each other.
Mary Trump: And I just think I want to mention that we are extraordinarily honored to have you be one of our Transcend champions. And there are many reasons for that, but part of it is some of the things you just said, your willingness to talk about accountability, your understanding of the importance of public service, the importance of community, the idea that Medicare for all is not some radical notion, especially when you’re talking about it in contradistinction to the fact that we have oligarchs stealing from us to enrich themselves and make it harder for us to get by. So I just wanted to thank you so much for your platform, for your willingness to speak out and stand strong, even on issues that may not necessarily be popular. And I’d suggest that’s because sometimes people don’t know enough about them to understand why they should be.
Before we end, because I know you’re extremely busy and I don’t want to take up too much of your time, I just want to remind people again that this race is tightening, which happens the closer we get to elections and that it is extremely important that people continue to donate to Peggy Flanagan’s campaign for Senate HERE. That money really helps in efforts to get out the vote and get people informed about why they should be voting for her. So Peggy, I just want to ask if you have one last thing to say to the people watching as we get closer and closer to November 3rd.
Peggy Flanagan: Absolutely. I would just say this, this campaign has always been about the money versus the money. I’m not taking corporate PAC money, so I rely solely on grassroots supporters and that means I get to be beholden to Minnesotans and no one else. And I’m running to make sure that people can afford the lives they want to live and to be a check on this administration that continues to do incredible harm. I’m small, but I’m mighty and look forward to representing the good people of Minnesota and all we stand for. And folks can go to HERE if they want to help us out.
Mary Trump: Also, I want to remind everybody because so much is at stake in this election, the Trump regime is going to try everything in its power to make it harder to vote, to make sure that votes don’t count. So if you haven’t registered, please register right now. If you are registered, check your voter registration and keep checking it until the moment you cast your vote. If you can vote in person, that’s great, but there are other options as well. So keep checking your voter registration because you never know. And it is more important than ever that we win this thing. And for Minnesotans, I cannot think of a better person to elect to the United States Senate than Peggy Flanagan. Peggy, thank you so very much for being here.
Peggy Flanagan: Thanks so much for everything. I appreciate you.
Sure and steady wisdom