Just more than two months after Melisa López Franzen launched her U.S. Senate bid, the former DFL legislative leader has dropped out of the race.
López Franzen—who said in her first campaign promo on March 10 that she was “ready to work harder than ever before to protect the next generation” in her quest to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith—announced on Friday evening that she is suspending her campaign.
“This is not about stepping back—it’s about stepping with intention into the space where I can have the greatest impact,” López Franzen said in a statement.
López Franzen’s exit from the race comes about two weeks after four-term Congresswoman Angie Craig announced she would seek the DFL nomination for the U.S. Senate seat that is up for grabs in Minnesota in 2026. That leaves Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan as the only declared DFL candidates for the open seat.
Vow to visit ‘all 87 counties’ after Craig entered the race
As recently as one week ago, López Franzen was campaigning with intent, telling her supporters, “This is going to be a competitive race and it’s going to get national attention.”
“I’m not your typical politician,” López Franzen said. “I’m not running for the big names in D.C. I’m running for you. That’s why I am going to all 87 counties, and I’ve been to several already.”
In her statement on Friday, López Franzen didn’t mention her intraparty opponents, but her early exit may have been precipitated by Craig’s entry into the race.
When López Franzen stepped in to challenge Flanagan, she said she would work to earn the DFL endorsement but would take the race to a primary if necessary.
Short stints as U of M’s chief lobbyist, DFL senate leader
In February, López Franzen announced she had left her post as the chief lobbyist for the University of Minnesota—just 19 months after she took the job—and she hinted that she was readying another run for office.
“With deep pride and gratitude, I share that I’ll be stepping away from my role at the U to prepare for what’s next,” she said in a post on X just one day after Flanagan launched her U.S. Senate bid.
López Franzen was hired in August 2023 as the university’s first-ever “executive director of government and community relations.” The job paid $250,000 annually and gave the university a more direct lobbying connection to Washington, D.C. Her hire came three months after the university selected former DFL congressional candidate Jeff Ettinger to serve as interim president.
While López Franzen was elected to three terms in the Minnesota Senate, she was essentially pushed out of her seat in early 2022 when the state’s legislative districts were redrawn.
Instead of challenging longtime Sen. Ron Latz, also a Democrat, for the newly redrawn Senate District 46 in which they both lived, López Franzen chose not to run again and used her remaining time as DFL Senate minority leader to captain the caucus’s “Flip the Senate” campaign. Following the November 2022 election, Republicans saw their one-seat majority turn into a one-seat Democratic majority.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
