Dark Family History Surfaces in Minnesota Senate Race

The race for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat has taken an unexpected turn with the resurfacing of troubling details from the family history of Democratic candidate Peggy Flanagan. Reports have brought to light the decades-long psychiatric care, escapes, and alleged involvement in multiple killings of her deceased grandfather, John Jacob Hartmann.

Flanagan, who is the state's lieutenant governor, faces Republican candidate Michelle Tafoya in the election to succeed Senator Tina Smith. The revelations about Hartmann, documented in old newspaper accounts and court records, emerged weeks before the midterm elections.

Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Turning Point USA, drew attention to "violent mental illness in Minnesota Democrat Peggy Flanagan’s family" via an X post. Dustin Grage, a columnist for Town Hall, also commented on the report, suggesting it "adds up."

Flanagan has often spoken publicly about her upbringing, emphasizing her reliance on public assistance as a child raised by a single mother and the influence of her Indigenous father, an activist for tribal land rights. Her father's advocacy has reportedly inspired her own work on behalf of Native American communities.

However, a less-discussed aspect of her family history involves Hartmann, who was a subject of Minneapolis newspaper coverage throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. His time in psychiatric hospitals, instances of escape, and suspected links to at least four deaths were brought to light by the Minnesota-based outlet Alpha News.

Hartmann died on February 6, 1983, when Flanagan was three years old. A death notice in the Minnesota Star Tribune listed Flanagan’s mother, Patricia Hartmann, and her three sisters as surviving daughters. An obituary for Patricia Flanagan, who passed away in 2022, noted her maiden name as Hartmann and identified John as her father.

According to a February 9, 1983, Star Tribune article, Hartmann was committed to a psychiatric facility on November 1, 1951, after his wife petitioned that he was "mentally ill and dangerous." This commitment followed the discovery of a burned body in a room occupied by Hartmann, though he was never charged in connection with the death of Theodore Foth. The newspaper also identified Hartmann as a suspect in the 1964 murder of another patient at the Minnesota Security Hospital, but again, no charges were filed.

Hartmann was transferred to Anoka State Hospital in 1970. He later escaped and went to New Mexico, where he was reportedly suspected in the deaths of a man and woman. A 1973 Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling noted that New Mexico authorities apprehended Hartmann on a warrant from Minnesota Probate Judge Melvin Peterson in September 1970. The ruling stated that Hartmann was living in New Mexico "without incident and without hiding his identity following his escape in Minnesota." A special prosecutor subsequently released Hartmann, concluding he was "sane and safe to be at large."

The following year, Hartmann was arrested in Colorado on a misdemeanor charge and returned to Minnesota.

In April 1979, Hartmann did not return from a visit pass at the Minnesota Security Hospital and fled to Missouri. During his time in Missouri, he allegedly made a threatening phone call to U.S. District Judge Miles Welton Lord. Lord had presided over Hartmann’s prior federal challenge regarding his involuntary return from Colorado to Minnesota. Hartmann was charged by federal authorities for the alleged threat, according to a 1979 Star Tribune report.

Flanagan's mother, Patricia, and her grandmother were both single mothers. Flanagan has described her grandmother as raising four daughters at a time when this was uncommon. Thomas Flanagan, identified as Peggy Flanagan’s stepfather in his obituary, later married Patricia.