Far left Minnesota Democrat Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan helped create a policy board focused on alternatives to traditional policing, then reappointed Trahern Pollard to a leadership position in 2025. Pollard was later sued by the state over allegations involving millions of dollars in charitable assets.

Flanagan and failed vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz first appointed Pollard, the founder of We Push for Peace, to the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee in 2021. The committee oversees federal grants and compliance.

The committee was created by Minneapolis after the 2020 death of George Floyd. It was designed to manage “community-led violence prevention and alternative public safety programs rather than traditional policing.”

Pollard served on the committee between 2021 and March 2025. During that period, the city of Minneapolis paid his organization nearly $2 million for violence interruption and outreach work.

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Those grants were intended to “provide ‘violence interruption’ services for juvenile offenders.” The money came from the Neighborhood Safety Department, which Flanagan helped establish.

The arrangement put Pollard on a committee responsible for oversight while his organization received substantial city funding for public safety programs. Minneapolis paid nearly $2 million to the organization during his years on the committee.

Flanagan nevertheless reappointed Pollard to the board in 2025. The move returned him to a leadership position after years of city payments to the organization he founded.

On May 8, 2026, the state sued Pollard and another individual for fraud. The lawsuit accused them of “misusing charitable assets, violating nonprofit governance laws, lying to the AGO, and running the nonprofit into the ground to steal its business for personal gain.”

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The Minnesota Attorney General’s office offered further details in its filing. It stated that Pollard and another individual “improperly used nonprofit assets for their personal benefit, diverting more than $6.5 million.”

According to the same filing, more than $6 million personally benefited Pollard. The office said he “used charitable assets on items like luxury cars, trips to Vegas, child support payments, and funding his for-profit liquor store and car dealership businesses.”

The allegations arrived after Flanagan had already reappointed Pollard in 2025. Her decision followed his service on the committee and the nearly $2 million Minneapolis paid his organization between 2021 and March 2025.

At the same time, Somali gang violence continues to rise in Minneapolis and elsewhere in Minnesota. Flanagan’s policy record and her role in establishing the Neighborhood Safety Department are now part of the political contrast in the Minnesota Senate contest.

That race has emerged as a possible sleeper flip for Republicans. Michele Tafoya is within the margin of error of Flanagan in most polls.

Republicans have not won a Senate race in Minnesota since 2002. Tafoya is presenting herself as the candidate of change while focusing on Flanagan’s eight years alongside Walz.

“The more that Minnesotans learn about me and my opponent and see what my opponent has failed to do over the last eight years alongside Tim Walz, they’re understanding Minnesota needs change,” Tafoya recently told Fox News.

“We need fresh ideas, we need an independent thinker, and they’re jumping on board,” Tafoya added.

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Tafoya’s argument places Flanagan’s record at the center of the campaign. That record includes helping create the Neighborhood Safety Department, appointing Pollard to the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, and reappointing him in 2025.

The state lawsuit now adds another damaging element to that record. It alleges that Pollard and another individual diverted more than $6.5 million, with more than $6 million benefiting Pollard personally.

While Minnesota Democrats celebrated their public safety alternatives, Pollard’s organization collected nearly $2 million from Minneapolis. Flanagan then handed him another term before the state filed its sweeping fraud allegations.

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