Minnesota Democrats, moderates and progressives alike slam shutdown deal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After the dust cleared on Sunday night on a deal to reopen the government, Democrats across ideological divides were smarting from what many characterized as a sellout by eight moderate colleagues.

And it happened after they scored electoral victories up and down the ballot last week.

“People were with us, and then this. It’s not OK,” said Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is running for an open U.S. Senate seat and picked up the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday. “It is time for you to pick your fighter and pick accordingly, because we deserve so much more than this.”

Her more centrist Democratic opponent in the U.S. Senate race, Rep. Angie Craig, also didn’t like the deal.

“I just can’t believe that those eight senators thought the message that voters on Tuesday were telling us was, ‘Go ahead and cave and take nothing, get nothing in return,’ ” Craig said in an interview Monday.

The shutdown vote comes after both moderates and progressives were galvanized by big election wins last Tuesday in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City. While leaders were still debating what the results mean for the future of the Democratic Party, for a moment, the deal to end the shutdown united Minnesota moderates and progressives in frustration.

DFL Sen. Erin Maye Quade, a progressive member of the Minnesota Senate, said the decision by the group of U.S. Senate Democrats to side with Republicans was “malpractice.”

State Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, who’s part of the DFL’s moderate Blue Dog Coalition, said he wouldn’t have accepted the shutdown deal, either.

“It does not lower health care costs in the way we were fighting to lower them,” he said.

Few were surprised that Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith voted “no” on Sunday night to keep the government shuttered without an extension of the Affordable Care Act tax subsidies. Smith had not been expected to join any faction of moderates without a commitment to extend the subsidies.

But a “no” vote by the centrist-minded Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who wins votes in conservative parts of the state, showed the senator sees that her party wants to push back against Republicans.

The moment comes as the Democratic Party is seeking to recapture both houses of Congress in the fall 2026 midterm elections. The party’s progressive and moderate wings are both trying to chart what they think is the best path forward.

But Craig said she doesn’t see an ideological debate in her party as much as one of stamina to fight against President Donald Trump‘s policies on trade, health care and the rule of law.

“I’ve been saying for a long time these old labels don’t work: left vs. center,” Craig said. “It’s about who you’re fighting for and whom you’re fighting against.”

Whether the left flank of the party — still buoyed a week later by the victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s mayoral race — can drive out voters in the heartland remains to be seen.

Last Tuesday, Minneapolis voters returned to the mayor’s office incumbent Jacob Frey, largely viewed as a political moderate inside city politics. He fended off a challenge from 35-year-old state Sen. Omar Fateh, a democratic socialist who’d drawn comparisons to Mamdani.

The morning after last Tuesday’s election, members of the Blue Dog Coalition buzzed about victories by two moderate Democrats, former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Rep. Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey.

“That was not to say that we weren’t also pleased that where more progressive voices lived, that they showed up and voted, too.”

Still, even Frentz acknowledged he didn’t see either wing of the party as “more ascendant.”

“The Democratic Party,” he said, “has to make room for all those groups.”