Feb. 26, 2026, 3:16 p.m.
Amid an abysmally high disapproval rating for Congress, two Democratic lieutenant governors are trying to bring an outside-the-Beltway perspective to the Senate.
Juliana Stratton in Illinois and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota face congressional opponents in their primaries, a distinction the two former undercards are using to their advantage.
“I think people are sick and tired of Democrats fighting from a defensive crouch and nibbling around the edges,” Flanagan told National Journal. “This choice that is facing our party overall is if folks want institutional, corporate Democrats or if they want progressive fighters.”
Flanagan and Stratton are pitching similar policy positions: support for Medicare for All, rejecting corporate PAC contributions, and overhauling Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the aftermath of the agency’s operations in their states.
“I can’t speak to each individual state or race, but what I do know is that Washington is broken, and people feel like their leaders are out of touch and are not really putting their needs at the forefront,” Stratton told National Journal.
The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association has made a concerted effort this cycle to help its members pursue different offices in open primaries, looking to provide reinforcements through DLGA PAC, an independent-expenditure group.
“Voters are looking for people who are not creatures of Washington, whom they see as fundamentally part of the problem,” said DLGA executive director Kevin Holst. “They’re looking for qualified people who can actually do the job, but do the job differently than those who have been going along to get along in Washington, D.C.”
Flanagan and Stratton said that the group has been beneficial to their Senate bids. The group has sponsored several internal surveys for both primaries and donated $10,000 to each campaign last year.
“One of the things about the DLGA that I've been really proud of is we're the most diverse group of elected Democratic elected officials in the country," Flanagan said. "We have an incredible team, we support each other, and I think that that matters. Don’t sleep on LGs and the organization that we’ve been able to build together.”
Don’t sleep on LGs and the organization that we’ve been able to build together. ”
—Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan
Several former Democratic lieutenant governors have found their way to the halls of Congress over the years.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania flipped a GOP-held seat in 2022, and Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Tina Smith of Minnesota were appointed to open Senate seats by their governors. Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii leveraged her role as lieutenant governor to win election to the House before she reached the Senate.
Yet some lieutenant governors have struggled in recent years to make the jump to higher office without appointment. Former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes failed to unseat Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022; he’s back for a gubernatorial run, running against the DLGA-backed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez in the Democratic primary.
“This system is largely set up to move from Congress to the Senate,” Stratton said. “I had to start fundraising from scratch. If you’re coming from Congress and running for the Senate, you can transfer those funds that you’ve been raising over however many years over to your Senate campaign.”
In Illinois, Stratton faces Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin. Despite several Democratic senators’ endorsements of Kelly and Stratton, Krishnamoorthi has consistently led in internal and nonpartisan polling.
Krishnamoorthi has also dominated the money game each fundraising quarter, helping him spend $26 million so far this cycle, according to the nonpartisan ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Illinois Future PAC, a super PAC with ties to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, is attempting to counter the congressman’s omnipresence on Illinois airwaves. The group has booked $4.4 million in future ad reservations, more than double the amount reserved by Krishnamoorthi.
Rep. Robin Kelly, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton at a U.S. Senate Democratic primary debate in Chicago on Feb. 19 (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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Kelly and Krishnamoorthi don’t agree with Stratton's proposals to abolish ICE outright and raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour. Both have emphasized their congressional records.
“Robin Kelly’s experience is paramount,” Kelly spokesperson Eileen Boyce told National Journal in a statement. “Robin is the only person in the race who has taken on the NRA, the health insurance companies, the political machines, and won.”
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
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In Minnesota, Flanagan is in a head-to-head race against Rep. Angie Craig to succeed retiring Sen. Smith. As Senate Democratic leadership signals a preference for Craig, the “Fight Club,” a group of progressive Senate Democrats that includes Smith and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, is falling behind Flanagan.
“In Minnesota, I can tell you people are very concerned about ICE and the chaos and terror and fear that they are creating in our state, and want people who are going to push back,” Flanagan said. “And this is, I think, one of the biggest contrasts between myself and my opponent.”
Unlike Stratton, Flanagan isn’t tying her campaign to her previous running mate. Gov. Tim Walz hasn’t publicly backed her campaign. The two have had a less pronounced partnership after Walz’s failed vice presidential bid in 2024. Flanagan’s Senate campaign comes as Sen. Amy Klobuchar runs for governor.
Craig’s campaign is emphasizing the potential competitiveness of the Senate contest, pointing to the statewide social-services-fraud scandal that drove Walz not to seek reelection and the entrance of former sportscaster Michele Tafoya and her support from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The congresswoman’s general-election mindset extends to her fundraising; she outpaced Flanagan last quarter, $2.1 million to $1 million.
While the DLGA has boosted the campaigns of many second-in-command hopefuls, the group's support isn’t without controversy.
Flanagan and Stratton have both spoken out against ICE’s actions across the country and within their states. At the same time, the DLGA has faced scrutiny for its PAC accepting $135,000 in contributions from CoreCivic, a private prison network and a longtime ICE contractor, between 2019 and 2025—overlapping with Flanagan's tenure as DLGA chair.
A DLGA spokesperson previously said the group would donate its 2024 and 2025 contributions from CoreCivic to the National Immigration Law Center, but a source familiar with the DLGA told National Journal that the NILC declined the contribution. The same source said the DLGA would seek another group to donate to and would cease accepting contributions from CoreCivic.
The criticisms have opened up the Democrats to a new attack angle.
“Juliana Stratton’s rampant hypocrisy simply knows no bounds,” said Krishnamoorthi spokesperson Hannah Goss in a statement. “Now we learn that her struggling campaign is being propped up by a super PAC that's funded by a top ICE contractor that helped Donald Trump’s DHS run the Broadview facility at the height of ‘Operation Midway Blitz.’”
Craig spokesperson Antoine Givens told National Journal in a statement that Flanagan “raised millions of corporate dollars as chair of the DLGA—including from the pharma, tobacco, oil and gas industries and from an ICE detention center contractor and continues to mislead voters about this fact.”
This spring could be the first major test for the DLGA’s ambition to expand its influence as Stratton competes in Illinois’ March 17 primary and Flanagan attempts to clinch the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s endorsement in late May before the Aug. 11 primary.
“We’ve been building this bench for a long time, and I think now you can see that coming to fruition with folks who are running,” Flanagan said. “Juliana, myself—there’ll certainly be more people who step up and in over the years, but it’s a strong organization and I’m proud of what we represent.”
CORRECTION: The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton has served as chair of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association. Stratton has served as chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association, but not the DLGA.
