Meet Minnesota’s Hijab-Wearing, Children’s Gender Surgery Advocate Who’s Running For U.S. Senate

The Democratic race for the U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota being vacated by Democrat Tina Smith has turned into a competitive contest between moderate Democratic Representative Angie Craig and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan.

While Craig represents a more centrist wing of the party, Flanagan’s candidacy is defined by a hard-leftist record that has drawn both high-profile endorsements from figures like Elizabeth Warren and intense national scrutiny regarding state-level scandals.

Flanagan has consistently aligned herself with radical progressive causes, often centering her leadership on identity-based advocacy. She has been a vocal supporter of Minnesota’s Somali community; the most recent example was a video that went viral over Christmas showing her wearing her version of a hijab and pledging to “have the back” of the community against the federal government.

After a representative from the Somali community thanked her for “her support for the Somali community, [which] has been under attack from the federal government, specifically from President Trump and the ICE agents who are on the streets, attacking us because we are Somali, as the president instructed them to do,” Flanagan said, “I just want to encourage the community to know that we’re with you; we’ve got your back.”

What a betrayal of subjugated women in the Muslim world. Wearing the hijab like it's a costume & not a tool of Islamist oppression. Gross. @peggyflanagan https://t.co/fPtKxNTx53

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) December 26, 2025

The alignment of Flanagan and the Somali community has become a flashpoint as critics link her administration’s policies to a lack of oversight regarding the Somali-tied welfare fraud schemes that have allegedly cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Under the Walz-Flanagan administration, Minnesota has been rocked by allegations of the “greatest theft of taxpayer dollars” in U.S. history. Investigations have revealed a sprawling network of fraud involving:

• Feeding Our Future: A $200 million fraud machine where executives fabricated meal counts to fund luxury lifestyles.
• Medicaid Exploitation: Housing stabilization payments soared from $2.6 million to over $104 million, while autism programs jumped from $3 million to $399 million due to inflated diagnoses and kickbacks.
• Terrorism Ties: Law enforcement sources and the Treasury Department are investigating claims that stolen funds were funneled through “hawalas” to the al-Qaeda-linked group Al-Shabaab.

“What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never-ending,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said. “I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away.”

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“Our investigation reveals, for the first time, that some of this money has been directed to an even more troubling destination: the al-Qaida-linked Islamic terror group Al-Shabaab,” City-Journal reported. “According to multiple law-enforcement sources, Minnesota’s Somali community has sent untold millions through a network of ‘hawalas,’ informal clan-based money-traders, that have wound up in the coffers of Al-Shabaab.”

“We believe that the Somali fraud operation in Minnesota is the single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars, through welfare fraud, in American history,” Trump advisor Stephen Miller said on Fox News. “We believe we have only scratched the very top of the surface of how deep this goes.”

Earlier this month, Flanagan erupted against President Trump, launching a broadside that sounded more like a social media influencer’s meltdown than the words of a sitting state executive.

After Trump scorched Minnesota’s Somali community over allegations of massive welfare fraud and ties to terrorism, Flanagan posted on Instagram to sneer: “You know, this vile, racist stream of consciousness from a President ‘Old Man Yells At Cloud,’ you’re disgusting.” She filmed herself cruising down Lake Street — the heart of the local Somali community — praising it as “beautiful,” “the fabric of our state,” and promising to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with immigrants “no matter what.”

Flanagan’s record on social issues is equally polarizing. She was a primary architect of Minnesota’s “Trans Refuge” laws, which grant the state emergency jurisdiction over children seeking gender-altering procedures, even without parental consent.

In 2023, Flanagan boasted about signing Minnesota’s “Trans Refuge Bill” and other radical measures as proof her state championed “love” and “freedom.” While celebrating the passage of the “Trans Refuge Bill,” Flanagan wore a “Protect Trans Kids” shirt featuring a dagger graphic. Flanagan faced intense backlash over her radical policies after a trans-identifying gunman killed two children and wounded dozens more at a Catholic School earlier this year. Critics suggested her “sanctuary” policies and rhetoric fostered a culture of radicalization.

After Democrat Governor Tim Walz signed an executive order forcing state agencies to protect “gender-affirming” health care, including surgery, Flanagan admonished parents not to dissuade their children from such health care, eliciting mockery from conservatives. “Let’s be clear: this is life-affirming and life-saving health care,” she declared. “When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them. That’s what it means to be a good parent.”

MN Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on sex changes for minors: "When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them. That's what it means to be a good parent." pic.twitter.com/WNXjGRgjsm

— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) March 15, 2023

As she seeks a seat in the U.S. Senate, Flanagan carries a record defined by deep-seated leftist activism and a “sanctuary” philosophy that extends from immigration to gender medicine. For her supporters, she is a “beacon of hope”; for her detractors, she represents a dangerous lack of accountability that may have allowed both fiscal corruption and radical social experimentation to flourish in Minnesota.