Attack ads rock Minnesota Senate race

Well, Minnesota's U.S. Senate race may be one of the closest campaigns in the state this year, and it's projected to be the most expensive by a long shot. More money means more ads, and we are comparing the commercial claims to the facts. Fox 9's Corinne Hoggard shows us what's missing and why the campaigns keep up the attack. She backed his war with its crazy gas prices, his tariffs, his ice force. This Peggy Flanagan attack on Michelle Tafoya visits a common Democrat theme in 2026, tying the Republican to President Trump. Tafoya did support the war in Iraq, but she started opposing it during the campaign. And her support for the president's tariffs and ICE actions in Minnesota are more nuanced and conditional. The Flanagan campaign told me, quote, adding nuance after the fact is not the same as opposing the policy when it mattered, end quote. And they're outraged at ads attacking the lieutenant governor's finances. And while Flanagan and Walz spent eight years failing, she somehow became a millionaire. Peggy got rich. Minnesotans got ripped off. The Flanagan campaign called this attack a repugnant smear because it compares Flanagan's finances as a single woman in 2018 to her bank account in 2026 as a married woman who also inherited money when her mother died in 2022. Tafoya's financial reports show she has between four and 40 times Flanagan's wealth. Her campaign did not respond to emails we sent starting on Monday. What they want to try to do is to get their base hot and bothered, get them excited to say, look at the other side, it's a horrible person, come out and vote. Hamline University political science professor David Schultz says there's also evidence attack ads are successful at suppressing at least a small number of votes. What you want to hope to do is to discourage them from voting for your opponent by attacking them. Now, if you can't get them to vote for you, at least not get them to vote for the opponent. And outside political action committees will probably keep up the attacks as long as there's money to spend. Even if the polls are not close, they don't want their voters to get complacent and say, ah, Flanagan's got a lead or Tafoya's got a lead. I don't need to go vote. Create the horse race to make sure your base comes out. National Republicans often don't spend money in Minnesota, But Schultz thinks they are investing more this year because, A, that Senate race may be close, and, B, they're trying to get National Democrats to spend more here so they can't spend in Texas and Kansas and Iowa, which are unusual battleground states this year. Corinne Hoggard, Fox 9.