Minnesota replaced its state flag on May 11, 2024, swapping a busy blue banner centered on the state seal for a minimalist design built around an eight-pointed North Star. Comparing the old Minnesota flag vs. the new one, the change is dramatic: the earlier flag showed a detailed seal of a white farmer and a Native American rider on a solid blue field, while the current flag shows an abstract dark-blue shape of the state with a white star, set against a lighter blue field representing water. The redesign has been praised as overdue and attacked as ugly, and by 2026 the fight had moved from the Capitol to city councils across the state.1Minnesota Secretary of State. State Flag
The Two Flags Side by Side
The flag that flew from 1957 until 2024 was medium blue, with the Great Seal of Minnesota centered on it. The seal depicted a white farmer plowing a field, his rifle leaning on a stump, while a Native American on horseback rode toward the horizon, with the Falls of St. Anthony behind them. The seal was surrounded by a wreath of pink-and-white lady’s slippers and the word “Minnesota” on red ribbons. That 1957 flag was itself a simplified version of Minnesota’s original 1893 design, which had been two-ply, reversible, and edged in gold fringe.2CBS News Minnesota. Minnesota State Flag History3MNopedia (Minnpost). Who Designed the Minnesota State Flag
The new flag drops the seal entirely. Its left side is a dark blue shape in the outline of Minnesota, with a white eight-pointed star centered inside. The rest of the flag is a solid, brighter blue field. No lettering, no wreath, no figures. Where the old design packed a full illustration onto a colored background, the new one relies on two shapes and two shades of blue.1Minnesota Secretary of State. State Flag
Why the Old Flag Was Retired
Two lines of criticism drove the change. The first concerned the seal’s content. Members of the state’s Dakota and Ojibwe nations and other critics argued the scene of a settler plowing while an Indigenous rider rode away conveyed a clear message of displacement and defeat. In the 1980s, the legislature responded by declaring that the Native American rider represented “the great Indian heritage of Minnesota” and requiring the rider to face south rather than west, but the underlying composition stayed intact.4Cherokee Phoenix. Minnesota Seeks Unifying Symbol to Replace State Flag5Minnesota Historical Society. Minnesota State Seal
The second line was design. Vexillologists — people who study flag design — widely mocked the old flag as a “seal on a bedsheet,” the term for any state flag that simply places a seal on a solid background. In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association ranked Minnesota’s flag among the ten worst of 72 U.S. and Canadian state and provincial flags, faulting its complexity, its excessive colors, and lettering that could not be read at a distance.6Lakewood Cemetery. Minnesota’s State Flag
How the New Flag Was Chosen
In 2023, the DFL-controlled Minnesota Legislature passed a government operations bill (Laws of Minnesota, 2023, Chapter 62, Article 2, Section 118) creating the State Emblems Redesign Commission and directing it to adopt new flag and seal designs by January 1, 2024.7Minnesota Historical Society. State Emblems Redesign Commission The commission had 13 voting members appointed by the governor, the Secretary of State, and state boards and councils including the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, the Council on Latino Affairs, the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, and the Council on Minnesotans of African Heritage. Luis Fitch chaired it.8Minnesota Secretary of State. State Emblem Redesign Commission Report
A public submission window drew 2,128 flag entries. The commission narrowed the field to six finalists, collected more than 21,882 public comments, and on December 15, 2023, selected a concept submitted by Andrew Prekker, a 24-year-old from Luverne with no formal design background who had created more than 50 variations of his entry. Prekker’s original design, Flag No. 1953, used an abstract state outline, a star, and colored stripes representing snow, nature, and water.8Minnesota Secretary of State. State Emblem Redesign Commission Report9MPR News. Minnesota State Flag Redesign Finalists: Luverne Designer
The commission then modified the concept in two significant ways. It replaced Prekker’s colored stripes with a single blue field representing water, and it swapped his stylized star for an eight-pointed star modeled on the inlaid marble star on the floor of the Minnesota State Capitol rotunda, which was designed by architect Cass Gilbert.1Minnesota Secretary of State. State Flag The final design took effect on Statehood Day, May 11, 2024, when it was raised over the Capitol at sunrise.10San Diego Union-Tribune. Minnesota Unfurls New State Flag Atop the Capitol
What the New Flag Represents
The eight-pointed star is the focal point and represents the state motto, “L’étoile du Nord” (Star of the North). According to the Secretary of State’s office, the star’s geometry can also create the visual illusion of four letter “Ms.” The blue field is a reference to the state’s more than 10,000 lakes, the headwaters of the Mississippi River, Lake Superior, and the Great Lakes Basin. Prekker said his goal was a design “inclusive to every single Minnesotan, irregardless of ethnicity, of political background.”1Minnesota Secretary of State. State Flag11PBS. New State Flag Designer
The Somalia Resemblance Claim
The most viral criticism of the new flag has been its supposed resemblance to the flag of Somalia. Both flags feature a white star on a blue field, but the details differ: Somalia’s flag has a five-pointed star on light blue, while Minnesota’s uses an eight-pointed star on a darker blue paired with the abstract state outline. Fact-checks by Snopes and AFP concluded the resemblance was coincidental, and a representative from the Minnesota Historical Society told The Dispatch the similarities were not intentional.12Snopes. Minnesota Somalia Flag Tim Walz13AFP Fact Check. Minnesota Flag Somalia Fact Check
The claim was amplified by Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and Fox News host Jesse Watters, and surged nationally in August 2024 after Kamala Harris named Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz signed the legislation creating the redesign commission but played no role in the design itself. U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer criticized the flag for its “vague similarities to Somalia’s flag,” and at the 2026 Republican state convention in Duluth he displayed a video depicting the new flag bursting into flames.12Snopes. Minnesota Somalia Flag Tim Walz14Minnpost. Let’s Fly the New Minnesota Flag — Or Not — Or the Old One Too
Cities That Refuse to Fly the New Flag
Minnesota law requires the state flag to be displayed at the Capitol and state government buildings, but it does not require cities or counties to fly it. That has made local resistance easy.15KTTC. House Bill Introduced to Penalize Minnesota Cities Not Flying Current State Flag
By mid-2026, according to MPR News, at least 15 cities across the Twin Cities metro and Greater Minnesota had voted to fly the old flag, with 13 of those decisions made since the start of 2026. At least 20 city councils had discussed the question.16MPR News. Why Some Cities Are Not Flying Minnesota’s Official State Flag Elk River, Janesville, Babbitt, Champlin, Plainview, and Zumbrota all voted to keep the old design. Detroit Lakes chose to fly no state flag at all. Itasca County flies both, on separate poles. Crow Wing, Nobles, Houston, and McLeod counties passed resolutions rejecting the new design.17Star Tribune. Detroit Lakes Latest City to Refuse Flying State Flag
Not every city has resisted. Columbia Heights issued a proclamation in May 2026 formally embracing the new flag, with Mayor Amáda Márquez Simula arguing the old design celebrated “the displacement of Indigenous people from their homeland.” Detroit Lakes Mayor Matt Brenk and Crosslake Mayor Jackson Purfeerst have made the opposite case, calling the new flag “ugly” and describing it as “a Twin Cities flag, not a Greater Minnesota flag.”14Minnpost. Let’s Fly the New Minnesota Flag — Or Not — Or the Old One Too17Star Tribune. Detroit Lakes Latest City to Refuse Flying State Flag
Legislative Fights
In April 2026, DFL Rep. Mike Freiberg introduced House Bill HF 5077, which would cut state governmental aid by 10 percent to any county or city flying a flag other than the one certified by the redesign commission. Affected local governments would have to self-report to the commissioner of revenue by December 31 of each year, with the penalty beginning with aid payable in 2027.18Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. HF 5077 Bill Text16MPR News. Why Some Cities Are Not Flying Minnesota’s Official State Flag15KTTC. House Bill Introduced to Penalize Minnesota Cities Not Flying Current State Flag
Some Republican legislators have pushed the other direction, seeking a public vote on the design. Rep. Marj Fogelman introduced legislation in early 2024 that would have put the flag to a statewide vote.19Minnesota House of Representatives. Rep. Marj Fogelman News The Secretary of State’s office has said Minnesota law does not allow statewide initiatives or referenda, and that a constitutional amendment approved by the legislature would be required to place such a question on the ballot.20KTTC. Can Minnesota Flag Be Put to Statewide Vote
Where Public Opinion Sits
A June 2026 Minnesota Poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy for the Star Tribune and the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism surveyed 800 likely voters and found the new flag deeply unpopular. Fifty percent disapproved, 30 to 33 percent approved, and roughly 20 percent were unsure.21Star Tribune. New Minnesota Flag Poll Results
The partisan split was severe. Ninety percent of Republicans disapproved and 2 percent approved, while a modest majority of Democrats approved and 16 percent disapproved, with nearly 30 percent unsure. More than half of independents opposed it. Geography mirrored the partisan divide: Hennepin and Ramsey counties, the urban core of the Twin Cities, leaned toward approval, 45 percent to 30 percent. The suburbs disapproved by 53 percent, and Greater Minnesota tilted sharply against the design.21Star Tribune. New Minnesota Flag Poll Results22Patch. Half of Minnesotans Disapprove of New State Flag
Two years after adoption, the new flag remains the only design authorized to fly over the Capitol and state government buildings. Whether that stays true in the rest of Minnesota is now decided city by city.