Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Minnesota and current lieutenant governor, appears to be the latest Democratic candidate whose scandals and controversies are nowhere to be seen across the influential news feeds of Apple News and Google News. A new analysis by the Media Research Center found that news-aggregating sites have failed to promote any of the dozens of articles about the scandals plaguing Flanagan's senatorial campaign.
Flanagan’s controversies could derail her hopes of becoming one of the country's most powerful elected officials. They include her role in a systemic failure to detect and stop millions of dollars in fraud in the state of Minnesota in her role as lieutenant governor, her aggressive and inflammatory anti-ICE rhetoric, scrutiny over thousands of now-deleted tweets, her record on DEI and gender policy and her increasingly bitter rift with Gov. Tim Walz (D), who declined to endorse her Senate bid and appeared to shun her out of his reelection ticket in early 2026. Tellingly, Apple News and Google News have failed to feature a single story about these scandals among their top 20 headlines in the weeks leading up to the general election, potentially leaving their millions of users in the dark about the controversies engulfing her campaign.
MRC’s Findings:
- Apple News and Google News have effectively implemented a months-long blockade of headlines detailing or mentioning Flanagan’s controversies from Jan. 1 through Oct. 7 across their top 20 morning stories, despite the national implications of her potential rise to power.
- The blockade of story headlines comes even as Flanagan’s controversies have received coverage from a wide-ranging group of news outlets during the same reviewed period, including from outlets that Apple News and Google News routinely feature. No less than 72 stories with headlines about Flanagan’s scandals were published across the broad spectrum of outlets, and none of them were promoted by Apple News and Google News.
- This is the latest example of MRC research finding that Apple News and Google News can effectively suppress coverage of politically consequential stories about Democrats despite widespread coverage of those stories across the broader news media. MRC previously exposed Apple News and Google News for effectively shielding Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine and Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan from their respective scandals.
Meet Peggy Flanagan, Whose Scandals Apple and Google News Won't Show You
Flanagan has served as Walz’s lieutenant governor since 2019. She won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, seeking to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), and faces Republican nominee Michele Tafoya in the Nov. 3 general election.
Her seemingly meteoric rise to stardom and closeness to power have faced a series of roadblocks given her past and emerging controversies, all of which were conspicuously absent from Apple News and Google News’s top headlines each morning.
Fraud Allegations
The scandals begin with her ties to an administration that has been plagued by questions over its handling of fraud allegations and reported retaliation against whistleblowers.
As one of the most powerful state officials in Minnesota, Flanagan had a unique opportunity to investigate and crack down on early red flags surrounding the numerous fraud allegations in the state. By her own admission, she participated in high-level meetings with Walz and other cabinet members to discuss fraud.
In an interview with The Minnesota Star Tribune, Flanagan claimed her authority as lieutenant governor was limited and that Walz “took the lead on fraud.” As noted by the outlet, Flanagan's admission raises questions about whether she is being truthful about the experience she claims makes her better qualified than Republican opponent Michele Tafoya, or whether she is now downplaying her role in the Walz administration’s handling of fraud.
Rather than combating fraud, Flanagan has faced accusations that she retaliated against Minnesota fraud whistleblowers who used an X account called “Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary” to sound the alarm about the Walz-Flanagan administration’s failure to address rampant fraud.
Deleted Tweets
In addition to the rampant fraud allegations, another scandal that has dogged Flanagan was the resurgence of thousands of deleted X posts where she openly voiced her radical, leftist ideology. Critics accuse Flanagan of removing the posts in 2024 to prepare for a run for higher office. Townhall columnist Dustin Grage released the 12,624 tweets in September 2026, spanning 2009 to 2024.
In the tweets, Flanagan disparaged Thanksgiving, Christopher Columbus and even the Washington Redskins, voiced support for transgender-identifying athletes at the expense of female athletes and railed against so-called male and white privilege and their racist undertones. She even threatened children who, in her view, dressed like a “racist stereotype” for Halloween and compared Beyoncé to Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Notably, the elitist media have largely ignored this scandal, with most of the scandal's coverage coming from right-leaning outlets such as TownHall.
See some of her egregious tweets below:
Inflammatory Anti-ICE Rhetoric
Flanagan has taken a very vocal stance against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, at times deploying language characterized by the White House as “inflammatory.”
During her victory speech following the Democratic primary, Flanagan said that “we need to rip ICE apart,” regurgitating her campaign promise to abolish the federal agency completely. “We need to completely overhaul this agency and start over,” Flanagan said as she campaigned against her Democratic opponent.
Flanagan’s comments came amid a series of high-profile confrontations involving ICE agents and people targeted by its operations, including incidents in which agents have used deadly force. In some cases, ICE’s accounts of what transpired have been disputed.
Her campaign did not return MRC’s request for comment for this story.
DEI and Gender
Consistent with her broader ideology, Flanagan has faced criticism for supporting controversial gender procedures for children suffering from gender dysphoria, far exceeding that of some of her allies, who limit their support for gender transitions to consenting adults. She has also backed biological male athletes competing in women’s sports and entering women’s locker rooms.
Separately, Flanagan also expressed support for critical race theory and accused white individuals of benefiting from so-called “white privilege” in now-deleted tweets. She has further claimed that Minnesota was built on “white supremacy” and was “not safe” for black individuals.
At the intersection of her DEI advocacy and the fraud controversies surrounding Minnesota, Flanagan drew scrutiny for appearing at a Muslim ceremony wearing a hijab, despite not being Muslim, alongside an individual who is the subject of an ongoing Minnesota Department of Human Services investigation.
Rift with Tim Walz
Flanagan appears to have become such a polarizing figure that even Walz, her longtime political ally, seemed to distance himself from her after the 2024 presidential election. Walz repeatedly declined to endorse Flanagan in the Democratic Party primary, while Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz publicly backed her opponent.
According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, tensions erupted after Walz returned to Minnesota following the Harris-Walz ticket’s defeat. He was reportedly upset that Flanagan had tapped into their reelection funds without his approval, which Flanagan’s team reportedly challenged. Flanagan was positioning herself for a potential gubernatorial campaign had the Harris-Walz ticket won the presidency.
Even Flanagan’s own allies claimed Walz sidelined her. He reportedly excluded her from major events and meetings. His allies have also grown frustrated with her aggressive attempts to distance herself from the state’s fraud scandals while falsely taking credit for some of the administration’s accomplishments, the Star Tribune reported.
Why Apple News and Google News’s Bias by Omission Matters
As MRC has documented in a growing series of special reports, Apple News and Google News have become powerful gatekeepers of information. The tech titan news aggregators largely determine which stories attract national attention and which get buried, all the while routinely elevating left-leaning outlets and shunning right-leaning alternatives.
In all, Apple News and Google News reach more than 210 million users each month, by conservative estimates. Separately, their growing influence has been credited with providing a lifeline and major traffic to outlets that would have otherwise perished due to lack of readership.
Apple News and Google News’s influence is why their editorial choices matter, especially in an election year. When they bury potentially damning stories about politicians and their campaigns, millions of Americans may cast their ballots without knowing the scandals surrounding the candidates seeking their votes.
These findings are part of a broader pattern MRC has documented in which Apple News and Google News give perceived scandals involving Republicans greater visibility than controversies plaguing Democrats.
Other MRC analyses found that both aggregators failed to promote stories about the Democratic National Committee’s multimillion-dollar debt, controversies surrounding Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, and Graham Platner, the former Democratic Senate nominee in Maine. Yet both News Apps happily promoted stories about scandals involving Ken Paxton, the GOP Senate nominee in Texas, and disgraced former Rep. Tony Gonzales, who resigned from office after admitting to having an affair with a staffer.
MRC Free Speech America Intern Preston Hoffman conducted crucial research for this special report.
Methodology: The Media Research Center analyzed the top 20 stories promoted by Apple News and Google News at approximately 10:00 a.m. ET from Jan. 1, 2026 through Jan. 11, 2026, and at approximately 8:30 a.m. ET from Jan. 12, 2026 through Oct. 7, 2026 for the specific search terms “Flanagan,” “Walz,” “Tafoya,” “Deputy,” “Gwen,” “Lieutenant,” “Minn,” “Peggy” and “Fraud.” Specifically, MRC sought to identify stories pertaining to controversies and scandals involving Peggy Flanagan and related topics.
MRC researchers searched online for stories about the Flanagan scandals from Jan. 1 through Sept. 28 that Apple News and Google News could have promoted among their top 20 stories. In total, MRC identified 72 stories.
