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BREAKING: Peggy Flanagan Not a Socialist, Familiar Source Confirms
“Peggy Flanagan isn’t a democratic socialist. But here’s where she agrees, and doesn’t, with the DSA.” That’s a bizarre headline even by the standards of the Star Tribune, which has gone out of its way to uncover the supposed electoral difficulties Flanagan faces. Let’s hope this story is the first in a series; I can’t wait to find out what political parties other prominent candidates don’t belong to. The possibilities are literally endless.
Fortunately, former House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler was on hand to confirm this fact. “[Flanagan] was not presenting herself as a DSA candidate, and she isn’t,” he told the Strib. “She’s a DFLer through and through.” Glad we got that sorted out. She’s only been lieutenant governor for eight years now.
Winkler’s is a familiar voice to Strib readers—this is the fourth time the paper quoted him in August 2026 alone. After the DFL primary he told the Strib that “Metro Surge and the Laken Riley vote were the perfect differentiating point for [Flanagan], and she used it very well.” (Duh.) And following sexual harassment claims against St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, he offered insight into Her’s personality: “She has a great sense of humor. She’s funny as hell. She loves to laugh.”
Winkler’s ubiquity is hardly a new phenomenon. The Strib quoted him over a dozen times in 2025, and, I note with a raised eyebrow, turned to him regularly in stories about Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, to whom Winkler lost an election in 2022.
When it comes to election-related stories, “political expertise” is pretty much a fake category. So what particular insight or perspective does Winkler offer? Surely the paper of record could expand the range of voices its politics coverage allows. After all, Winkler has still got a long way to go to catch up with U poli sci prof Larry Jacobs or former Downtown Council president Steve Cramer.
Welcome to Mump-esota
If you want your kid to catch a preventable childhood disease, well, Minnesota is the state for you. According to Axios, 6.9% of kindergarteners in our state have exemptions from childhood vaccinations, far above the national average of 4.2%. Only Idaho and Wisconsin have a smaller percentage of kids vaccinated against polio, chickenpox, measles, mumps, and rubella. And when it comes to diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough, only Idaho is worse.
The low level of vaccination among schoolchildren is a concern nationwide, and it doesn’t help that we have a deranged Secretary of Health and Human Services or that the Trump administration is fucking around with the vaccination schedule. But Minnesota, which allows for vaccination exemptions for medical reasons or because of “personal belief,” has carved out a space for the anti-vax crowd, and they’re making the most of it.
8th Circuit: First Amendment Protects Lying About Who Can Vote
The Minnesota Voters Alliance is an organization that seems to want as few Minnesotans to vote as possible. So the MVA really hates the state law that permits non-incarcerated felons to vote. But since courts found that the org lacks legal standing to challenge that law, it has to be satisfied with repeating again and again that re-enfranchising these voters violates the Minnesota constitution.
The question is, do those declarations run afoul of another Minnesota law, which forbids providing misinformation about elections? And the answer, at least according to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is almost certainly not. In a decision handed down today granting the MVA a preliminary injunction, the court said that Minnesota’s law appeared overly broad and imposed an unconstitutional prior restraint of speech.
Among the arguments the court found persuasive was that the state could have taken other actions. “Rather than limiting what others say, it could have launched an education campaign consisting of calls, texts, or emails informing [felons] of their rights,” wrote Judge David Stras.
Data (Center) Dump
Data centers! They’re what everyone’s talking about these days. So let’s do a quick rundown of the week’s data center news.
- A Wednesday meeting of the North Loop Neighborhood Association drew hundreds of attendees, many of them opposed to or at least concerned by the possibility of the Virginia-based Legacy Investing buying the Star Tribune print plant and constructing a data center on the property.
- Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley posted on social media about the Frey administration's plans to allow data centers throughout the city, and shared opportunities to push back.
- Residents of Hermantown, Minnesota, seem skeptical of Google’s decision to scale back its planned data center in northeastern Minnesota from 1.8 million square feet to 1.66 million square feet. “Go away, Google. That’s what we’re saying,” said nearby resident Jeffrey Donahue at a meeting Monday night.
