LGBTQ+ group backs Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for Senate over lesbian Rep. Angie Craig

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

The national political organization that supports pro-trans rights candidates said its decision rested in part on Craig’s failure to co-sponsor the Trans Bill of Rights, along with Flanagan’s support from 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.

Related: Lesbian Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig launches historic U.S. Senate bid

Hack said Flanagan has committed to supporting the legislation and helping 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 notable LGBTQ+ ally in a race where Craig has already secured support from some of the movement’s most recognizable figures.

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

That divide has made the Minnesota primary an unusually clear test of competing ideas about LGBTQ+ political power. Craig can point to the historic significance of her candidacy and a long record of supporting LGBTQ+ legislation. The Christopher Street Project is arguing that identity alone does not settle the question.

Hack said the organization was guided by support for Flanagan among 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 belief that transgender rights should remain central to Democratic politics, even as some party strategists have urged candidates to retreat 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.

Related: Angie Craig elected first woman and first LGBTQ+ ranking member of House Agriculture Committee

“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.”

Then she delivered a sharper warning to members of her own party.

“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 framed the primary as a choice between two competing Democratic models. She described Craig as an “institutional corporate Democrat who continues to cling to the status quo” and cast herself as 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.”