Minnesota's all-female governor, Senate races test candidates on women’s issues

Minnesota made political history this summer. For the first time in any state, the Aug. 11 primary produced all-women matchups in both the governor's race and a U.S. Senate race in the same election cycle.

This Nov. 3, former Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar will face Minnesota Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth for governor, while Democrat Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan takes on Republican Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter, for Minnesota's open Senate seat.

The setup is unprecedented, according to Kelly Dittmar, who researches women in politics at Rutgers' Center for American Women and Politics. Minnesota is now all but guaranteed to send a woman to the governor's office for the first time in state history.

But identity isn't policy. For voters trying to decide how these candidates would govern on issues that impact women, like health care access, abortion, domestic violence, and LGBTQ rights, their records are what matters.

Why It Matters

Interestingly, Minnesota is one of 17 states that has never elected a woman governor, and every woman who has represented the state in the U.S. Senate has been a Democrat. A Tafoya win would make her the first Republican woman Minnesota has ever sent to the Senate.

These two races will shape Minnesota law on issues like reproductive health care, family leave, workplace protections, and civil rights for years, regardless of who wins.

Minnesota currently protects abortion access under state law, but there is no state constitution locking in that right, in some other states. This means the governor's office and the Legislature retain real power over the state's direction.

The Senate race, meanwhile, will help determine control of a chamber that confirms federal judges and votes on national legislation like the Women's Health Protection Act and the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization—both bills that Klobuchar co-sponsored when she served in the Senate.

Governor’s Race

Amy Klobuchar (D)

Klobuchar’s goals and stances across key areas can be defined by both her current 2026 campaign platform and her legislative record as a U.S. Senator.

In the Senate (2016-2025), Klobuchar co-sponsored the Women's Health Protection Act to codify abortion access nationally, the Paycheck Fairness Act on wage equality, and legislation expanding menopause research.

Her campaign for governor centers on lowering health care and child care costs and expanding access to both.

Klobuchar has supported broad federal and state protections for LGBTQ+ individuals. She was an original co-sponsor of the federal Equality Act, which explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, employment, and public spaces.

In addition, Klobuchar has publicly opposed state-level bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

Lisa Demuth (R)

In February 2025, Demuth made history as the first Black lawmaker and first Republican woman to serve as Minnesota Speaker of the House. If elected, she be the first Black woman elected governor in the state. She fended off MyPillow founder and President Trump-endorsed Mike Lindell to win the Republican primary.

Demuth maintains a conservative platform on social, reproductive, and voting issues. Her legislative record and official stances on women's rights and related issues reflect traditional Republican policy priorities.

In 2023, Demuth was the chief author of a bill to ban abortion (HF 1809). She has also supported “fetal heartbeat” legislation restricting abortion earlier in pregnancy.

On issues of domestic violence, DeMuth voted against Minnesota's 2023 "red flag" gun law, which allows judges to order the temporary surrender of firearms from individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others.

On LGBTQ+ issues, in 2025, DeMuth said a Minnesota Supreme Court decision ruling that biological males have the right to compete in female athletics, threatens the safety of girls and undermines fair play.

She supported the Preserving Girls Sports Act (H.F. 12), which specifically states that only female students may participate in school sports restricted on the basis of sex to women or girls.

She also voted against the state's “trans refuge” law, which protects people who travel to Minnesota for gender-affirming care from other states' legal action.

Race for U.S. Senate

Peggy Flanagan (D)

Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, has called herself a vocal supporter of abortion rights and backs the federal Women's Health Protection Act to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade and expand access to abortion for women in every state.

She also supports requiring Medicaid and insurance companies on the ACA exchange to cover IVF procedures so everyone who wants to can start a family.

As lieutenant governor, she helped establish the nation's first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, aimed at addressing violence disproportionately affecting Native women and girls.

In addition, she helped pass the Minnesota Protect Reproductive Options Act, which ensures access to contraception, sterilization, preconception care, maternity care, abortion care, family planning, fertility services, and counseling regarding reproductive healthcare. She has said she will fight for this legislation at the federal level.

She has vowed to support HR 5, the Equality Act, to prohibit discrimination based on sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.

If elected, she'd be the highest-ranking Native woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

Michele Tafoya (R)

Tafoya enters the race for Senate after decades as an award-winning television sportscaster and reporter, covering a number of Super Bowls and the Olympics. From there, she entered politics, serving as a chair of Kendall Qualls’ Republican campaign for governor in 2022.

Tafoya has described herself publicly as a “pro-choice Republican” who supports abortion access up to 12 weeks of pregnancy — an unusual position for a statewide GOP candidate in Minnesota.

She has stated her support for the U.S. Supreme Court returning control over abortion to the states, and that she would vote to confirm conservative, strict-constructionist judges “who interpret the law as written rather than legislating from the bench.”

Tafoya has said that states that restrict access to fertility treatments like IVF are acting wrongly.

Separately, she has built a public following opposing transgender athletes in women's sports. Her campaign website states: “Get men out of women’s sports. The radical social experiments on our daughters have to stop.”

It should be noted that both races also include candidates outside the two major parties, all appearing on the Nov. 3 general election ballot: Green Party nominee Steven Young in the governor's race, and Libertarian Rebecca Whiting and independent Marisa Simonetti in the Senate race.