With GOP Upset Brewing, Minnesota Democrat Caught Lying About Academic Record

Minnesota Democrat Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan claimed she graduated Phi Beta Kappa while making the case for greater diversity in public school classrooms, but her campaign has now acknowledged that she never belonged to the prestigious academic honor society, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and the Democrat nominee for the seat held by retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), made the claim during a March 2016 Minnesota legislative hearing while discussing how teachers who shared students’ backgrounds could transform their academic performance.

“Everything changed, there was a switch, something clicked,” Flanagan said at the hearing. “I graduated Phi Beta Kappa because I saw myself reflected in my teacher and I saw myself reflected in my curriculum.”

The Journal asked Flanagan’s campaign on October 12 to substantiate her membership in Phi Beta Kappa, one of the nation’s oldest academic honor societies. Eight days later, the campaign acknowledged that she had never been a member.

“The lieutenant governor was nominated for Phi Beta Kappa, but like too many other students, she couldn’t afford the application fees to become a part of the honor society,” campaign spokeswoman Alexandra Fetissoff told the Journal. The lifetime membership for Phi Beta Kappa currently stands at $99 at the University of Minnesota.

The revelations come as Flanagan faces Republican Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter, in a Senate race that has become more competitive than Democrats initially expected.

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Cook Political Report shifted the race from “Likely Democrat” to “Lean Democrat,” on Tuesday. Minnesota has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since Norm Coleman won in 2002. Democrats have held the seat since Al Franken defeated Coleman in 2008, and Kamala Harris carried Minnesota by more than four percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

Tafoya, who is running for public office for the first time, has kept the contest close. Recent polls have placed the candidates within four points of one another, and the race could prove consequential as Democrats attempt to net four seats necessary to reclaim Senate control.

Tafoya has made accountability a central theme of her campaign, particularly in response to the massive fraud scandals involving Minnesota’s public benefits programs. During the only debate between the candidates, Tafoya hammered Flanagan over the state’s failure to adequately oversee taxpayer-funded programs during the administration of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz. Flanagan hid behind Walz’s statement that “the buck stops with me” on the fraud topic, while dodging accountability.

The University of Minnesota commencement program for Flanagan’s graduating class of 2002 does not list her among its honors students. The university’s Phi Beta Kappa GPA threshold for seniors is 3.65.

The Journal also found that Flanagan’s official biography on the Minnesota state government website implies she earned a double major in American-Indian studies and child psychology. Her campaign acknowledged that she graduated with a major in child psychology and a minor in American Indian studies.

Flanagan has previously described struggling academically in high school, citing a 1.75 GPA before her experience at the University of Minnesota helped turn her academic performance around. Her account of that transformation has featured in her advocacy for greater teacher diversity. During the 2016 hearing, she argued that representation in the classroom could help students see themselves reflected in their education, as she claimed it helped her.

Flanagan, whose father is Ojibwe, has made her Native American heritage part of her public identity. Two years after graduating from college, she ran for the Minneapolis School Board, presenting herself as a potential first Native American member of the board.

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