Royce White is a former professional basketball player turned right-wing political activist and podcaster running for the Republican nomination in the 2026 U.S. Senate election. Born in Minneapolis in 1991, he was the 2009 Minnesota Mr. Basketball and led Hopkins High School to an undefeated 31-0 season. He played college basketball for Iowa State, leading the team in every major statistical category in 2011-12, and was selected in the first round of the 2012 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets. His NBA career was brief, playing only three games for the Rockets and Sacramento Kings before leaving due to struggles with generalized anxiety disorder and a fear of flying. After retiring from professional basketball, White pursued mixed martial arts and later became involved in right-wing activism. In 2022, he unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. In 2024, he won the Minnesota GOP's endorsement and primary nomination for U.S. Senate but lost to incumbent Democrat Amy Klobuchar by approximately 16 points (56% to 40%). He announced in November 2024 that he would run again in 2026 for the now-open Senate seat.

Billy Nord is a Democratic candidate running for U.S. Senate as a working-class candidate. He is a streaming company manager and former Minneapolis School Board member. Nord positions himself as a donation-free candidate focused on affordability and accountability for working-class Minnesotans.

Melisa López Franzen is a former Minnesota State Senator who represented District 49 (southwest Twin Cities suburbs including Edina, Eden Prairie, Bloomington, and Minnetonka) from 2013 to 2023. Born and raised in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, she earned her bachelor's degree in political science from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico and her Master of Public Policy in economic development from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She earned her Juris Doctor from Hamline University School of Law in 2006. López Franzen spent eight years as an attorney at Target Corporation, holding various positions in government affairs and community relations. In the Minnesota Senate, she was elected minority leader in September 2021, serving in that role until January 2023. She was described as running as 'a fiscal moderate who also fights for education and affordable healthcare.' In 2023, she took a position as the University of Minnesota's chief lobbyist before stepping down in February 2025 to pursue her Senate campaign.

U.S. Representative Angie Craig has represented Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District since 2019, where she flipped a Republican-held seat. Born and raised in Arkansas in a mobile home park by a single mother, she worked her way through college while holding two jobs. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Memphis in 1994 and worked as a journalist before transitioning to corporate communications and business leadership. She moved to Minnesota in 2005 for a job at St. Jude Medical and eventually led a workforce of 16,000 employees for a major Minnesota manufacturer. Craig is married to Cheryl, a former middle school teacher, and they are mothers to four adult sons and grandmothers to three grandsons. She is the first openly LGBTQ+ person from Minnesota elected to Congress and the first lesbian mother to serve in Congress. In December 2024, she became the first openly LGBTQ+ person and first woman to serve as ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee.

Peggy Flanagan is the Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, having assumed office in 2019. A member of the White Earth Nation, she would be the first Native American woman elected to the U.S. Senate if elected. She earned a bachelor's degree in American Indian studies and child psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2002. Her career includes serving as the youngest member of the Minneapolis School Board at age 25, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund–Minnesota, and trainer for Wellstone Action. In the state legislature (2015-2019), she led Democrats on child care issues and served as one of only two DFLers to successfully author a bill that became law while in the minority. As Lieutenant Governor, she championed paid family and medical leave, investments in education and healthcare, housing initiatives, and abortion rights protections.

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