Christopher Street Project endorses Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota Senate primary

The Christopher Street Project has endorsed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, siding with a longtime LGBTQ+ ally over lesbian Rep. Angie Craig.

The national political organization, which supports candidates who back transgender rights, said its decision was based in part on Craig’s refusal to co-sponsor the Trans Bill of Rights and on Flanagan’s support among transgender and queer leaders in Minnesota.

“The congresswoman has yet to sign on to that bill, and that for us is a pretty clear line,” Tyler Hack, the Christopher Street Project’s executive director, told The Advocate.

Hack said Flanagan has pledged to support the legislation and to help organize other Democrats around transgender protections.

“We need folks who will organize alongside us, who will build a Democratic caucus that is unapologetically pro-trans and will work with us on the ground,” they said. “That’s what we’re seeing with the lieutenant governor.”

The endorsement gives Flanagan a prominent LGBTQ+ ally in a race where Craig already has support from some of the movement’s best-known figures.

Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that established nationwide marriage equality, endorsed Craig earlier this year. Craig has also won backing from the Human Rights Campaign, Equality PAC, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

That split has turned the Minnesota primary into a test of competing ideas about LGBTQ+ political power. Craig can point to her historic candidacy and her long record on LGBTQ+ legislation, while the Christopher Street Project argues that identity alone is not enough.

Hack said the group was influenced by support for Flanagan from Minnesota LGBTQ+ leaders, including OutFront Minnesota Action and state Rep. Leigh Finke, the first out transgender member of the Minnesota Legislature.

“If there are allies to our community who have a record and a commitment to show up for our community and have the local support from queer and trans folks on the ground, those are folks that we stand by,” Hack said.

Flanagan said the endorsement reflected a shared view that transgender rights should remain central to Democratic politics, even as some party strategists have urged candidates to move away from the issue.

“I think it’s clear to me that civil rights and human rights should always be something that Democrats stand for,” she told The Advocate in an interview Thursday. “When any community is under attack, our job is to stand up for each other.”

She placed transgender equality alongside reproductive freedom, voting rights, disability rights, immigrant rights and tribal sovereignty.

“This is about whether every person is treated with dignity under the law,” Flanagan said. “It’s fundamental to who we are as a country. And in my opinion, it should be fundamental to who we are as Democrats.”

She then warned fellow Democrats: “If you don’t stand up for the things that you claim you believe in, then I don’t know that you really believe in those things,” she said.

Flanagan also cast the primary as a choice between two Democratic styles. She described Craig as an “institutional corporate Democrat who continues to cling to the status quo” and called herself a “progressive fighter” rooted in movement politics.

“We can no longer nibble around the edges,” Flanagan said. “We need to be big and bold and fight for the things that we actually need.”

Craig and Flanagan are the best-known candidates in the August 11 Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Tina Smith.

“The contrast is clear,” Hack said, “and we’re really excited to be behind Peggy.”