Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for the state's Democratic Senate primary and said Sunday he expects a close contest against moderate Rep. Angie Craig—but stopped short of predicting a win.
"I think it's going to be a very, very close race," Sanders said on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. "I think she is being outspent seven to one, and under those circumstances, it's tough for anybody to win."
Sanders, an independent from Vermont, appeared on the program from Burlington on Aug. 9, with 86 days remaining before the November midterms. The Minnesota primary falls Tuesday, setting up an immediate test of whether progressive candidates backed by Sanders can hold their own against better-funded opponents in a Democratic primary.
Flanagan, the current lieutenant governor, represents the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Craig, a sitting member of the House, has drawn support from centrist donors and super PACs that Sanders says have flooded the state with outside money. Sanders drew a direct line from that spending to similar dynamics in Michigan, where a comparable progressive-versus-moderate primary drew national attention earlier this cycle.
"There is a reason why the super PACs and the billionaires are flooding Minnesota with all kinds of money," Sanders said. "Same thing as Michigan. They don't want somebody to stand up for the working class in Minnesota."
Sanders made his case for Flanagan on economic terms. He said 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford groceries, housing or health care, while the wealthiest Americans continue to accumulate more. He argued that voter frustration with that condition is driving demand for candidates willing to challenge concentrated money in politics, and that Flanagan fits that mold while Craig does not.
Asked directly whether he is confident Flanagan will win, Sanders said no. He cited her ground game and grassroots support as factors in her favor, and said he plans to do everything he can to help her win—but declined to make a prediction.
Sanders also used the interview to push a structural argument about campaign finance, calling for public funding of elections to reduce the influence of super PACs in Democratic primaries. He argued that as long as outside money can flow freely into primaries, progressive candidates will continue to face spending gaps that are difficult to overcome regardless of grassroots organizing.
Brennan asked Sanders about Wisconsin, where Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong is expected to win her Democratic gubernatorial primary. Sanders declined to endorse her, saying his focus is on Senate and House races, with governors' contests limited to one exception—Maine. He said some of Hong's platform positions, including raising income taxes on millionaires and expanding health care access, sound "quite reasonable" to him, but that his organization has a limited number of races it can engage in.
The Minnesota race is one of several Democratic primaries this cycle where the progressive and centrist wings of the party are competing directly for the same seat. Sanders has framed these contests as a referendum on economic policy, arguing that voters are rejecting establishment positions and seeking candidates who will directly challenge concentrated wealth and corporate power.
The seven-to-one spending deficit Flanagan faces is the defining constraint of the race, and Sanders acknowledged that no amount of grassroots organizing has consistently overcome that kind of financial disadvantage in recent primary cycles.
