Champlin, Minnesota, Mayor Ryan Sabas is refusing to fly his state's new flag, and he wants every voter in Minnesota to have the same choice. The Minneapolis-area mayor is publicly challenging Gov. Tim Walz and the Democratic-controlled legislature to put the controversial redesign on a statewide ballot, calling the process that produced it a top-down exercise that cut ordinary citizens out entirely.
The pushback is not symbolic. The Champlin City Council voted in February to keep flying the original Minnesota state flag on city property. And Champlin is not alone, roughly a dozen towns and counties across the state have refused to raise the new banner, which replaced a design rooted in Minnesota's 1893 flag when it was officially hoisted on May 11, 2024.
Now some Democratic lawmakers want to punish those holdouts. The question is whether the people of Minnesota will get any say at all.
The new flag was the product of a 13-member commission created by the Democratic-controlled legislature in 2023. The Minnesota State Emblems Redesign Commission's final report, submitted to the legislature, claimed the design emerged "through extensive public input, a design contest that drew over 2,500 entries, and many hours of deliberations." The commission said it had "created designs that reflect the spirit of Minnesota, the people, the land and water, and the history of our state."
That language sounds inclusive. The reality, as described by the officials who have to live with the result, was anything but.
Sabas told Fox News Digital that the flag was never put to a full legislative vote. Instead, the governor and Democrats bypassed the normal process:
"Two years ago, the governor and the Democrats had full power of the House, Senate, and the governor's seat. They chose they wanted to change the state flag, which they legally have the ability to do that. But instead of bringing this to the House, through the Senate and all voting on it, they picked select members of a committee and that's who chose the flag."
Republican state Sen. Mark Koran went further, telling Fox News Digital that the commission represented only "about 13 percent of Minnesota's population." Koran described the commission's composition in blunt terms:
"Native Americans, Hispanic, [LGBT], you name it, every special group was identified. So, that was really reflective of how all governance [in Minnesota] has been done by a small group of people that they've pandered to under the guise that they're they've been oppressed and they've given them the strongest voice."
Koran called the flag issue one that "may seem unimportant at one level" but argued it amounts to "a direct assault on hard-working, legal U.S. Minnesotans."
Sabas said the flag controversy generated more constituent feedback than anything in his public career. In nearly a decade on the Champlin City Council and going on four years as mayor, he said, "I have never heard from more people on any one issue than I did about the Minnesota state flag." He estimated at least a two-to-one majority in his community favors keeping the earlier 1983 version of the flag.
The word residents used most? According to Sabas: "ugly."
Champlin City Council member Tim Huttner backed up that assessment. Before the council's February vote, Huttner held a roundtable with constituents. He said an informal poll of attendees found "100 percent" supported flying the original flag. Huttner told Fox News Digital he approached the issue as a public servant, not an advocate:
"I don't have an opinion. I work for you."
Huttner acknowledged the legal limits of local action, "We cannot legally put it on a city ballot, but it doesn't mean we can't put it on a state ballot", and urged state leaders to revisit the decision. "I respect our city legislators, I respect our state legislators, but sometimes you've got to redo a redo," he said. "I believe this is one of those times."
The flag fight may seem like a local skirmish, but it fits a broader pattern of Walz-era governance in Minnesota that critics say prioritizes ideological projects over the concerns of ordinary residents.
Rather than reconsidering the process, some Democratic lawmakers have responded to the local revolts by seeking to force compliance. Breitbart reported that DFL lawmakers proposed cutting state aid by 10 percent to any city or county that flies a flag other than the redesigned version, with the penalty set to take effect in 2027 if passed.
Sabas called the proposal a "ridiculous bill" and said withholding funding over the flag is "absolutely ridiculous." The threat of financial punishment against communities exercising what Sabas described as their legal rights has only sharpened the backlash.
Champlin is not the only city standing firm. Elk River has also moved to keep flying the original flag. Elk River Mayor John Dietz told Breitbart that constituent opposition was intense and specific: "Several people that came to speak at our city hall compared it to the Somali flag, and that was a very big issue of why they disliked it." Alpha News, cited in the Breitbart report, found 75 percent of Elk River residents favored the original flag.
The cost of compliance is not trivial, either. Sabas said replacing the old flag cost the city of Champlin alone $40,000. Multiply that across every municipality in the state, and the tab for a redesign that many residents never wanted adds up fast.
Walz's administration has faced mounting pressure on multiple fronts. The governor recently dropped his DHS commissioner nominee just before a confirmation hearing as scrutiny over a massive fraud scandal intensified. That scandal, involving billions in alleged Medicaid and human-services fraud, has become a defining liability for Walz's record.
Sabas framed his challenge to the governor in personal, not partisan, terms. He said he has a working relationship with Walz: "I've always felt that he's someone who does listen to me when I have something to say."
But the mayor was direct about what he wants. With Walz in his final year as governor, Sabas issued a pointed appeal:
"So, I challenge the governor in his last year of being governor of the state of Minnesota to really find a way to unite. Unite Minnesotans, unite us, Republicans, Democrats, people that don't know which side they are on, unite us."
Sabas said the legislature should "have the opportunity to do this legally and do it right." His position is straightforward: "These are the people's flagpoles. This is the people's decision."
Fox News Digital reached out to Walz, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, and Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion for comment. No responses were noted in the reporting.
The flag controversy has become part of a broader reckoning over how Minnesota's government operates under one-party control. The Minnesota Freedom Caucus has filed impeachment articles against Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison over the fraud scandal, and federal pressure has mounted as well.
Koran, the Republican senator, connected the flag process to the state's wider governance failures. "It was a process that reflected almost how all of [Minnesota] legislation has been implemented," he said, a small group making decisions for millions.
The public pushback against the flag is real, measurable, and growing. A dozen communities have refused to comply. Residents are showing up at city halls. Councils are voting to keep the old banner. And the legislature's response has been not to listen but to threaten funding cuts.
Meanwhile, the broader scrutiny of Walz's tenure continues to deepen. Federal officials have targeted the governor and his administration over welfare fraud enforcement, adding another front to the political pressure he faces in his final months in office.
The flag fight is, on its face, about a piece of cloth. But the principle underneath it is not small. Citizens across Minnesota are asking a simple question: Who decides? A 13-member commission hand-picked by the party in power, or the people who have to fly the flag?
The fact that the legislature's answer so far has been to threaten the communities that dared to dissent tells you everything about the priorities at work in St. Paul.
When the government's response to public opposition is not persuasion but punishment, the flag is no longer the issue. The issue is who the government thinks it works for.