After a failed 2016 campaign, Democrat Angie Craig is back on the campaign trail in the hopes of unseating her 2016 victor, Rep. Jason Lewis (R-MN-02).
Craig, who would have become the first lesbian mother in Congress, was one of the Democratic Party’s top candidates in 2016, but ultimately lost to Lewis, a Republican talk-show host of 20 years.
Throughout her 2016 bid for Congress, Craig’s campaign repeatedly spliced together sound bites from Lewis’ 20-year career, and at one point even suggested that he was pro-slavery, according to PowerLine. The smear campaign resulted in threats against Lewis and his family, and at one point mobs of protesters even surrounded the congressman’s home.
Reflecting on her surprise defeat, Craig followed the example of her party’s 2016 presidential candidate and blamed her loss on everyone but herself.
“She took six percent of Democratic votes from me. That was 1.9 percent of the total, enough to turn the election,” Craig said in a recent interview with MinnPost, suggesting that Independence Party candidate Paula Overby crippled her chances of winning.
Craig also blamed low-frequency voters who turned out for Trump, saying she thinks their votes sabotaged down-ballot candidates like herself.
Finally, she blamed her defeat on Hillary Clinton by saying that “Democrats were frustrated with the top of the ticket” and didn’t show up to vote.
“If any one of the three factors hadn’t happened, I would have beat Jason Lewis in 2016. This is the data I looked at when I said, ‘I’m going again,’” she told MinnPost.
This time around, Craig is using her opposition to President Trump to propel her base, taking a strong stand against the GOP tax bill.
“I’d repeal the whole thing. I’m not kidding,” Craig said at a January event. “This legislation may go down as the worst piece of legislation in the history of this country.”
In an August Suffolk University poll of Minnesota voters, however, 53 percent of respondents rated their current economic conditions as “good,” with 12 percent saying their economic conditions are “excellent,” and another 29 percent saying their conditions are “fair.” Only 4 percent described their economic conditions as “poor.”
Craig will face off against Lewis for a second time in the race for Minnesota’s Second Congressional District in November.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Emails tips to [email protected].
