Rep. Angie Craig makes it official, announcing U.S. Senate bid

WASHINGTON Rep Angie Craig who has been walking a political tightrope since she first ran for Congress is taking another hazard plunging into the race for retiring Sen Tina Smith s seat Craig declared her bid for the seat in a video that featured the jeans-jacketed lawmaker driving a black jeep across the state and interacting with Minnesotans who noted they were concerned about the direction of the nation under President Donald Trump The video disclosed on Trump s th day in office fiercely attacks the president his tariff approach and the unleashing of Elon Musk on the federal agencies and their workers I ve had to fight my whole life And damn if we don t have a fight going on right now Craig says in her video There s chaos and corruption coming out of Washington crashing down on all of us every day A president trampling our rights and freedoms as he profits for personal gain She also says a cowardly Republican Party is letting it all happen Craig will now run against Lt Gov Peggy Flanagan and former state legislator Melisa L pez Franzen another DFLer who has declared her candidacy for Smith s seat in next year s Democratic primary Craig has represented a swing district since she won a rematch against Republican Jason Lewis in If stays in the Senate race her nd congressional district would be up for grabs She has bucked her party from time to time voting for GOP measures that would enhance policing and perimeter assurance and is the largest part moderate Democrat vying for Smith s seat Craig says she has pissed off DFLers in the state for bridging the line to vote for GOP initiatives from time to time Majority in the last few days Craig voted for the Laken Riley Act the first piece of provision President Trump signed into law as he zeroed in on a major priority immigration The regulation named after a -year-old nursing learner who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant in Georgia directs federal executives to detain and deport immigrants who are accused not yet convicted of specific crimes if they are in the country illegally Craig was also one of just Democrats voting to censure Rep Al Green after the Texas Democrat interrupted Trump s joint address to Congress last month Tim Lindberg a political science professor at the University of Minnesota Morris reported Craig is in a very tricky position as a candidate Lindberg noted she like Democratic Sen Amy Klobuchar has been deemed not liberal enough by progressives and not conservative enough by Republicans who might potentially vote for her I think her biggest obstacle is that she is a good general-election candidate but she could face trouble in the Democratic primary unless she goes to the left Lindberg stated That s because party primaries largely attract the the majority activist voters in the Democratic Party that s the progressives The Republicans who have released their intention to run for Smith s seat include Royce White a controversial former NBA member who lost to Klobuchar last year and former Navy Seal Adam Schwarze But a GOP candidate is likely to face headwinds in Lindberg mentioned as the nation weighs the wisdom of a White House and Congress controlled by Republicans When a party controls everything voters like to balance that out he announced There s also a traditional swing against the party that occupies the White House in midterm elections and the threat of a weakening economic activity that could sour voters on the GOP From trailer park to Congress Craig has run and won tight races before with the help of relentless campaigning and a fundraising advantage which she continues to hold against Flanagan and L pez Franzen having raised more than million in campaign cash as of the end of March The video the Craig campaign circulated Tuesday introduces the lawmaker to Minnesota voters who may not know much about her The video stresses her as the daughter of a single mom living in a trailer park in Arkansas who put herself through college and rose to become the top executive in two medicinal device companies Before gay marriage was recognized Craig won a major legal battle in Tennessee when a judge gave her custody of her son with her then-partner as the adoptive parent Craig later married her wife Cheryl in Minnesota and has four children and three grandchildren She s already met voters outside the nd Congressional District which includes the suburbs and rural areas south of the Twin Cities by holding town halls in the districts of Minnesota s four Republican U S representatives Tom Emmer Brad Finstad Pete Stauber and Michele Fischbach Craig stated she ventured into the reddest parts of the state because the lawmakers representing those districts decided against holding in-person town halls after their GOP colleagues faced angry constituents at their events I m here because Tom Emmer won t show up and listen to you Craig explained at a town hall in St Cloud last week Angered at Craig s foray into their territory Emmer and his Minnesota GOP colleagues have sought the House Ethics Committee to investigate whether the Democrat improperly used office account support to publicize the town halls The post Rep Angie Craig makes it official announcing U S Senate bid appeared first on MinnPost