Sen.-elect Peggy Flanagan calls for new leadership from Senate Democrats • Minnesota Reformer

Peggy Flanagan, in her first news conference since being elected to the U.S. Senate, praised the new voices coming to Congress after Democrats won landslide victories across the country in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Voters elected at least 10 new Democratic senators, already the largest class of new Democratic senators elected for the first time in 40 years, with results from Alaska and Mississippi still outstanding. Many have made history: Flanagan is the first Native American woman elected to the Senate, Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan the first Muslim and Chris Pappas of New Hampshire the first homosexual.

All these new voices need a new leader, Flanagan said.

“I’m extremely grateful for Chuck Schumer’s leadership … and I think it’s time for new leadership,” Flanagan said, reiterating his campaign promise to support an alternative.

She did not specify who she thinks should replace Schumer, the 76-year-old future senator from New York, who led the Democratic caucus in the Upper House for the past decade and first came to Congress in 1981.

Flanagan rode a blue wave to victory with a group of other new progressives, including El-Sayed, Juliana Stratton in Illinois and Troy Jackson in Maine.

All are eager to push the party to use its new majority in Congress to advance radical economic proposals: Medicare for All, universal child care, raising the federal minimum wage.

Flanagan also said it was possible to pass popular legislation with Republican support that would typically be needed to overcome the Senate filibuster, such as forcing an end to the war in Iran, banning pre-authorization of health insurance, guaranteeing farmers the right to repair their equipment.

“We’re going to pass some pretty bold legislation. If the president decides he wants to screw over the American people and veto these bills, I guess that’s his choice,” Flanagan said.

Polls showed Flanagan in a tight race with Michele Tafoya, a retired sports broadcaster who Republicans saw as their best chance in years to win statewide. The secretary of state’s unofficial results, however, show she won by 10 percentage points, nearly matching moderate Gov.-elect Amy Klobuchar’s margin of victory.

This will fuel Flanagan’s argument that Democrats need to show they aren’t just “nibbling around the edges” in order to continue building momentum to retake the White House in 2028.

She said Democrats also have a mandate to investigate the Trump family’s sprawling business empire, which has grown significantly since Trump took office in 2025, including international crypto, real estate and mining deals, defense contracts and presidential pardons for campaign contributors.

And, she added, Democrats must hold the Trump administration accountable for its violent immigration crackdown that cost the lives of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

“There is a long list of things that this administration needs to answer for,” Flanagan said. “In Minnesota, Renee Good’s family and that of Alex Pretti deserve justice.”