By all accounts, Flanagan is a nice person (I once had a very pleasant exchange with her on an airplane flying back to Minnesota from Washington). But at a time when this state and country are shifting ideologically toward the center-right, she’s just way too radical for most Minnesota voters’ temperate political tastes. If she’s the Democratic choice in 2026, and I think she will be, a plurality of voters here will be looking for an alternative.
So, unless Minnesota Republicans opt for a political kamikaze campaign and run the patently unfit for office Royce White again, the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate should be competitive next year. And having Tim Pawlenty in that spot would give us our best shot at success.
For starters, he knows the state. And the state knows him. Both like each other. In 2006, he was a GOP outlier and was able to win the governor’s office, during a horrible national election cycle for Republicans, because voters here liked his pragmatic and competent governing style and trusted him as someone of integrity.
While he fights as hard as anyone I know for his conservative corner, Pawlenty also knows how to disagree agreeably. At a time when we all want to lower the political temperature, having kindhearted candidates like him back in the political arena would adjust the thermostat.
And Pawlenty, who comes from humble beginnings in South St. Paul, is perhaps an even better fit to be a GOP standard-bearer today than he was 20 years ago given the party’s growing popularity with working-class voters.
The main reason he has declined running is that he feels he would fail to win the Republican primary. I disagree with that assessment. Pawlenty’s conservative bona fides are beyond reproach, and the party faithful, including this columnist, are tired of losing winnable elections in the North Star State. Victory, not making a point, is the ultimate goal of campaigns, and Tim Pawlenty can deliver that for the too often defeated Minnesota GOP.
