A Minnesota Senate campaign has been drawn into renewed attention to the family history of Democratic candidate Peggy Flanagan. The reporting concerns her grandfather, John Jacob Hartmann, whose psychiatric commitment and escapes were covered in Minnesota newspapers decades ago. He was suspected in several deaths but was not charged in those cases, according to the accounts cited in the coverage.
Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor, is running against former television sports reporter Michelle Tafoya for the seat held by Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, who is retiring. The report appeared weeks before the 2026 midterm elections. Neither candidate had publicly addressed the renewed attention, according to the source material. Social media posts about the story included comments from Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet and Town Hall columnist Dustin Grage.
Hartmann’s history was brought back into public discussion by Minnesota outlet Alpha News, which cited old newspaper reports and court records. A Minnesota Star Tribune article published after his death said Hartmann had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in 1951. The article described a petition by his wife alleging he was mentally ill and dangerous. Hartmann was not charged in the death of Theodore Foth, whose body was found burning in a room, although the newspaper account connected the events in its coverage.
The Star Tribune also identified Hartmann as a suspect in the 1964 killing of another patient at Minnesota Security Hospital. He was not charged in that case either. In 1970, Hartmann was transferred to Anoka State Hospital and escaped to New Mexico. Newspaper accounts reported that he was suspected in the deaths of a man and a woman there.
A 1973 Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling provides a separate account of Hartmann’s return to Minnesota. The ruling said New Mexico authorities located him under a Minnesota warrant and found him living openly and without incident after his escape. A special prosecutor later concluded Hartmann was “sane and safe to be at large,” according to the court history described in the source. The ruling did not mention the alleged New Mexico killings.
Hartmann was arrested in Colorado the following year on a misdemeanor charge and returned to Minnesota. In 1979, he did not return from a visit pass at the Minnesota Security Hospital and went to Missouri. A Star Tribune report said federal authorities charged him over an alleged telephone threat against U.S. District Judge Miles Welton Lord. Lord had presided over Hartmann’s earlier federal case challenging his involuntary return from Colorado.
Flanagan was three years old when Hartmann died on Feb. 6, 1983. A death notice listed her mother, Patricia Hartmann, and three of Patricia’s sisters as his daughters. Patricia’s 2022 obituary also identified John as her father.
Flanagan has spoken publicly about growing up with a single mother who relied on public assistance and about the influence of her Native American father, a tribal land-rights activist. In an interview with Minnesota Women’s Press, she also described her grandmother raising four daughters as a single parent. The source material does not establish that Flanagan knew about or had any connection to her grandfather’s alleged conduct. Fox News Digital said it sought comment from Flanagan’s campaign.
