Minnesota Senate race takes bizarre turn after dark family history uncovered

A dark chapter in the family history of Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan has made its way into the race, but it is unclear whether voters will hold the alleged sins of her long-dead grandfather against her. 

Earlier this week, Alpha News revealed the troubled mental health history of Flanagan's grandfather, John Jacob Hartmann, supported by old newspaper accounts and court records. He spent decades in psychiatric custody, escaped twice and was suspected in multiple killings, though never charged.

The reporting comes just weeks before the midterm elections, in which Flanagan, the state's lieutenant governor, faces former television sports reporter Michelle Tafoya in a race to fill the seat of Democrat Tina Smith, who is retiring.

Neither Flanagan nor Tafoya has commented publicly on the matter since the decades-old allegations resurfaced. But the bizarre development has generated a buzz on social media.

Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet highlighted the "violent mental illness in Minnesota Democrat Peggy Flanagan's family," in an X post, followed by a photo of Flanagan wearing a shirt that says "Protect trans kids." and Dustin Grage, a columnist with Town Hall, wrote the report "adds up."

Flanagan has frequently spoken about her upbringing, including being raised by a single mother who relied on SNAP benefits and housing assistance, and the influence of her indigenous father, a tribal land rights activist who helped inspire her own advocacy for Native American communities.

But a lesser-known part of her family history involves Hartmann, who made headlines in Minneapolis newspapers throughout the 1970s and early 1980s for his time in psychiatric hospitals, his escapes and allegations linking him to at least four killings, which was dredged up by Minnesota-based outlet Alpha News.

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Flanagan was three years old when Hartmann died on Feb. 6, 1983. A Minnesota Star Tribune death notice listed Flanagans mother, Patricia Hartmann, and her three sisters — Kathleen, Mary and Margaret — as his surviving daughters. An obituary for Patricia, who died in 2022, listed her maiden name as Hartmann and identified her father as John.

In an interview with Minnesota Womens Press, Flanagan said both her mother and grandmother were single mothers. She described her grandmother as having raised four daughters "at a time when that didnt happen a lot." Flanagan's mother eventually married Thomas Flanagan, who is identified as Peggy Flanagan's stepfather in his obituary.

In a Feb. 9, 1983

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