It was an eventful off-year election across the country.
In Minnesota, St. Paul elected a new mayor, state Rep. Kaohly Her. It was in a surprise repudiation of the incumbent, Mayor Melvin Carter. Across the river, Minneapolis voters gave their mayor, Jacob Frey, another term.
As the dust settles from the the 2025 election, momentum for the 2026 midterms is picking up. Minnesota will see an election as big as they come as voters will elect a governor, a new U.S. senator, key positions from the attorney general to the secretary of state, eight members of the U.S. House and the entire state Legislature — which is now as closely divided as ever.
MPR News politics editor Brian Bakst and a pair of political analysts look back at this week’s voting and look ahead to what’s in store next year.
Later in the hour, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Schwarze made his case on why he’s running and what he’ll have to navigate to reach the fall ballot.
Updated on Nov. 13: There were some points in Schwarze’s interview where he referenced proven and alleged fraud in government-managed programs in Minnesota that required a closer look.
He said “it’s purported now $6-8 billion that Peggy Flanagan and Tim Walz spent on fraudulent donations to foreign interest groups this last term.”
Fraud is a legitimate public concern — one that is causing the Walz administration political problems and leading to new administration actions to detect and prevent it. There have been no independent or official reports that have the numbers that high. The suggestion that it was for “donations to foreign interest groups” is a stretch — even as some nutrition aid wound up being transferred abroad by alleged or convicted scammers.
Federal prosecutor Joe Thompson, the lead U.S. attorney on the Feeding Our Future and other fraud investigations involving federal passthrough dollars, has said publicly that fraud in Minnesota is believed to be “in the billions of dollars.”
Further into the interview, Schwarze claimed that Flanagan, the current lieutenant governor and a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, “racked up $354,000 on a government credit card” over two years without receipts.
The attribution to Flanagan is false, according to auditors who first used that accurately cited figure in a recent audit. Legislative Auditor Judy Randall told MPR News this week that Flanagan wasn’t issued a purchasing card during the period reviewed.
“Those payments related to Governor’s Office employees (not the Lieutenant Governor) who had state purchasing cards during that period,” Randall said, relaying a message from the auditor directly involved in the review.
The audit did raise concern over lack of required documentation tied to the expenses, but the governor’s office said new procedures have since been put in place to address the reporting gaps.
Guests:
- Chas Anderson is the co-CEO and senior principal at Park Street Public and a longtime Republican strategist.
- Todd Rapp is the president and CEO at Rapp Strategies and a veteran DFL strategist.
- Adam Schwarze is U.S. Marine veteran and former Navy SEAL seeking the Republican nomination for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat.
- Peter Cox is a correspondent for MPR News.
- Michelle Griffith is a reporter for the Minnesota Reformer.
- Nathaniel Minor is a reporter for the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation or subscribe to the Politics Friday podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.