Former Minnesota Senate Leader Melisa López Franzen announced her campaign for the U.S. Senate Monday morning.
“I am running for the United States Senate to protect our Minnesota values, restore sanity and bring decency and common sense back to Washington,” López Franzen said in a video on X announcing her decision.
López Franzen was the DFL minority leader in the state Senate from 2021 to 2022 representing the southwest metro area. López Franzen opted not to run for reelection when redistricting placed her in the same district of another DFL lawmaker.
Since then, López Frazen hasd been the executive director for the University of Minnesota’s government and community relations before resigning from the position on Feb. 21.
López Franzen highlighted her work as state senator in the video and said she helped expand Medicaid, raise minimum wage and enhance worker protections. She also boasted her record in strengthening protections for reproductive rights and marriage equality in Minnesota while in the Senate, according to her campaign website.
“When people said it can’t be done, I proved them wrong,” López Franzen said in the video. “That’s why my state Senate colleagues elected me as their leader. I took that grit to the University of Minnesota, supporting the faculty who shape our future with our students who are the future. Now the stakes are even higher.”
López Franzen became the second DFL candidate to officially announce their campaign to replace Sen. Tina Smith’s (D-Minn.) U.S. Senate seat after Smith said she would not seek reelection. López Franzen will face Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who announced her campaign in February, in the DFL primary.
Republican Royce White, who challenged Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s seat in 2024, is the only Republican who has announced their campaign so far.
Other potential candidates for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat who said they are considering running include Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), state Sen. Julia Coleman (R-Waconia) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he will not run for Senate but has not officially announced a reelection campaign yet.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, López Franzen graduated from Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in 2001 with a political science degree before gaining her Master in Public Policy from the University’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs two years later. She also attended Hamline University’s law school and received a doctorate in 2006.
On her campaign website, López Franzen said her campaign would be about putting working families first and rising above partisan gridlock. She said in a video on X that she will bring decency and common sense back to Washington, D.C.
“Our rights are being stripped away while unelected billionaires slash services for everyday Americans,” López Franzen said in the video. “Everything we work so hard for is under attack. So it’s time to work harder than ever before to protect the next generation. America’s off course, not lost. Minnesotans will lead the way.”
