3 candidates seek Minnesota’s Senate seat without major party backing
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There are two major party candidates battling it out right now in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race: GOP nominee Michele Tafoya and DFL nominee Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
But there are also three candidates running without major party backing: Rebecca Whiting as the Libertarian party’s candidate, Marisa Simonetti as an independent and Alycia Gruenhagen as a write-in candidate.
Unlike the major party nominees, these candidates don’t have a big organization helping their campaign with finances or volunteers. They don’t get the same amount of media attention. And often, their campaigns are spending in the low thousands of dollars compared to the millions spent by major party candidates.
Rebecca Whiting, Libertarian
Whiting, the Libertarian, made use of one great equalizers for political candidates — the Minnesota State Fair.
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"Well, we're out here trying to get the word out, talk about what we're doing,” she said outside the Libertarian Party booth in late August. “Third-party candidates really rely on a grassroots, organic kind of movement to be able to get people to know about us."
Whiting, a farmer and small business owner, is a veteran who served in the Iraq war.
“I was a combat medic in Iraq in Ramadi and Baghdad, from 2004 to 2007. I did seven years total in the Army,” she said. “It was during a very tough time in the global war on terror.”
It was a harrowing time, and Whiting said those experiences have stayed with her.
When she saw the U.S. go to war with Iran, she felt pulled to run for office.
"I realized then when I saw us making the same mistakes that we made that got us into Iraq, that got us into Afghanistan, that we're doing the same things over again, that I had to participate in this political campaign this season because I can be a voice in opposition to the wars in a way that a civilian, who is talking about war theoretically, cannot,” she said.
Along with pushing the country to be non-interventionist, Whiting wants the U.S. to erase the national debt, deregulate business and cut taxes.
Marisa Simonetti, independent
Also in the Senate race is Marisa Simonetti, who's running as an independent.
"People feel like the system itself is not fair,” she said. “Whether it's immigration, the Appleton prison being built, the electric shock gloves, the lack of affordability with cost of living. Whether it's the cost of gas, groceries, high interest rates for housing, and especially within the justice system, a lot of people just feel like it's rigged."
Simonetti ran for the Hennepin County Board in 2024. But her campaign struggled when she was charged with and later convicted for throwing several things down a stairway, including a live tarantula, toward the door of a tenant in her home.
She's appealing that conviction and says the experience made her more critical of the justice system.
"I've gotten to observe firsthand who the players are, how they operate, what their incentive structure is, and I'm very comfortable never bowing down in those situations because the system is set up as a meat grinder to throw you in and exploit people for other people's profit,” she said.
Simonetti said ICE’s immigration operation in Minnesota devolved into abuse and unnecessary violence, and she said the government allowed agents not to be held accountable. She supports increasing funding and staffing for schools, cutting red tape for small businesses, and increasing affordable housing.
Alycia Gruenhagen, Republican write-in candidate
For Republican Alycia Gruenhagen, the decision to run as a write-in candidate came after she saw her party nominate Michele Tafoya.
A new ad from Tafoya gets right to the heart of why Gruenhagen chose to run.
"I'm a pro-choice Republican,” Tafoya says in the ad. “I'm not afraid to stand up to my party."
Gruenhagen, the daughter of Republican State Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, said that stance is not in step with the state GOP.
"I felt it was important for someone who stood on the Republican principles to step forward and become an option, particularly on the issue of life and being pro-life,” she said, “to support the platform and the many, many Republicans who have fought for life over the years."
Along with being strongly anti-abortion, Gruenhagen listed several other key issues including election integrity, strong border security and support for law enforcement.
"We have to respect our own laws, respect our own Constitution, respect our own borders, so we are able to run a nation that is safe and secure,” Gruenhagen said.
Recent polls show a large majority of voters supporting one of the two major party candidates, but Whiting, Simonetti and Gruenhagen are each hoping to make a strong showing.
