Minnesota nice is hard to explain to outsiders. Thus I will leave it to the internet to explain it for me:
While there's no official definition, the term typically refers to Minnesotans' tendency to be polite and friendly, yet emotionally reserved; our penchant for self-deprecation and unwillingness to draw attention to ourselves; and, most controversially, our maddening habit of substituting passive-aggressiveness for direct confrontation.
This can be best illustrated by the recent debates between the MN-2 incumbent, Rep. Angie Craig, and the challenger, Joe Teirab.
Minnesota's Second Congressional District Rep. Angie Craig made her case for a fourth term in Congress Friday during a debate with her Republican challenger, Joe Teirab.
The debate, hosted by MPR News and moderated by MPR's politics editor Brian Bakst, took place at noon inside the public media outlet's St. Paul studios and lasted about an hour.
The 2024 contest between Democrat Craig and Republican Teirab is considered highly competitive as both candidates vie for votes in communities extending from the southern Twin Cities metro to just north of Mankato.
While there were some points of contention - especially on inflation and abortion - the debate was mostly conducted in Minnesota nice fashion - on the issues instead of personal attacks.
Why is this district important? It is seen as a potential bellwether district for both who will win the Presidential race and Congress.
Eyes are on the competitive race for Congress in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District. The district is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. It includes all of Scott, Dakota and Le Sueur counties. It's a south suburban district with 40% rural farmland. Since 2000, the district has voted for the winner in every presidential election.
The question for Rep. Angie Craig is whether or not she can turn up the heat on Joe Teirab should the need arise.
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Rep. Angie Craig is a potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbent. A couple of ratings aggregators have labeled this race as “Leans Democratic”. That’s why I’ve included her in a group of 28 incumbents or open-seat races we are defending. #SaveTheMajority Fund.
Angie Craig for Minnesota-2
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What’s the Big Idea?
MN-02 results in 2022.
THIS HOUSE RACE IS RATED AS LEANS DEMOCRATIC, with a D+1 PVI
The district in its present form dates back to the 2000 Census, when it was drawn to be a safe Republican district for Rep. John Kline. It functioned this way for nearly two decades, with Kline not being seriously challenged. GW Bush won the district twice by a wide margin, and then Obama very narrowly won the district twice.
Kline retired in 2016, and that gave the DFL their first opening at this seat since its inception. Radio shock jock Jason Lewis narrowly defeated Angie Craig while Trump very narrowly carried the district. This was the type of suburban district that was ground zero for a backlash to Donald Trump, so it was no surprise that Craig won the rematch by a modest margin.
In 2020, it was expected that Craig would cruise while Biden carried the district. Biden did indeed carry the district, but there was a complication in Craig’s re-election campaign. The “pot parties”, as they are colloquially known, gained major party status in 2018. The GOP purposely recruited someone to stand as a candidate for one of these parties to siphon votes away from Craig in 2020. The scheme nearly worked but unraveled when the “pot party” candidate died before the 2020 election.
As opposed to taking in portions of southeastern Minnesota like in 2010 redistricting, this version of MN-02 takes in farmlands to the southwest of the Twin Cities that are beet red. Joe Biden would’ve won this district 52.5% to 45.4% under the current lines. Rep. Angie Craig had a robust challenge from Tyler Kistner in 2022 and also had the spoiler of the “pot parties” once again. She was able to prevail 50.9% to 45.7%. 423k people voted in this district in 2020 while 325k voted in 2022 which is quite the drop-off. Thankfully she doesn’t have to deal with the “pot parties” any longer.
Here’s where this 2nd district race will be won.
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Twin Cities Suburbs: Many of these suburbs used to vote for Republicans, so they are recent converts to the cause. As the Twin Cities expands, these suburbs, such as Eagan, Shakopee, and Burnsville are all trending in the Democratic direction. It is important that Craig maintain the levels of support that Biden received if she is to win another term.
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Northfield: This small city is a dot of bright blue in otherwise a sea of farm fields. It is important that the liberal arts colleges found within the city vote heavily for Craig. Craig needs a strong showing from Northfield if she is to win another term.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
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Twin Cities Exurbs: The furthest out exurbs, such as Lakeville, Farmington, and Hastings are not yet converted to our cause. They are a light red in hue, and it is important that Craig keep these cities somewhat competitive. If they bounce back too far to the GOP, Craig will not win this election.
- Farm Country: Once you get outside of the Twin Cities metro area, the voters become very skeptical of the Democratic Party. If these voters turn out at a higher rate than the suburbs, Craig will have all sorts of issues in staying in office. There’s little hope of converting them to our cause at the present moment.
Rep. Angie Craig: Minnesota Nice
Rep. Angie Craig has been more bipartisan in the 118th Congress than in previous terms.
Rep. Angie Craig was born in West Helena, Arkansas in 1972. She graduated from the University of Memphis with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She interned at The Commercial Appeal, and then became a full-time reporter. After living in London from 2002-2005, Craig worked at St. Jude Medical headquarters in the HR Department from 2005 to 2017. Craig is the first LGBTQ+ member of Congress from the state of Minnesota and also the first openly lesbian mom in Congress.
Craig was fairly partisan in her first couple of terms in office. She voted with Trump’s stated position 5% of the time in the 116th Congress while voting with Biden 100% of the time in the 117th Congress. It is in the 118th Congress where she’s broken with the Democratic Party the most - only agreeing with Biden 70% of the time. She was a part of the negotiations to avert a government shutdown in the Speaker McCarthy era and even sought to punish lawmakers for shutting down the government with legislation.
Based on her background working at St. Jude, it is natural that Rep. Angie Craig shows strength on healthcare issues first and foremost. She was the representative that introduced a bill to cap insulin costs at $35 which became a part of the Inflation Reduction Act. She also worked on fixing the so-called “family glitch” in the ACA that led to some families paying more. She has introduced bills to increase competition by using more affordable generic drugs and a public option health care plan to increase ACA Marketplace competition.
Craig has also been very active on the abortion rights front. She naturally supports passing a law to codify Roe, ensure birth control access, and protect IVF. She also introduced and helped pass a bill protecting those who travel across state lines for abortions from prosecution. She’s also pushing the Biden administration to adopt a rule to prevent funds from going to misleading “crisis pregnancy centers”.
Craig is also contrasting her record on seniors with her challenger. She introduced legislation to eliminate federal taxes on Social Security benefits. Craig co-sponsored a loan program to shore up seniors’ access to pensions called the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act. She also ensured a provision to stabilize some pensions was included in the American Rescue Plan.
Craig sits on the House Committee on Agriculture which is important for many voters in the district. Her bill to ensure year-round access to E-15 biofuel passed the House for the first time recently. She’s also working to secure support for a proposed White House Office of Rural Prosperity so that agricultural and rural issues are no longer neglected in any administration. Finally, Craig helped pass a bipartisan piece of legislation to protect our farmland from being purchased by foreign adversaries. Craig stood against the partisan Farm Bill and is upset that a clean bill wasn’t passed in time.
Minnesota is a strong educational system and Craig wants to strengthen the system where possible through legislation. Her 21st Century Workforce Partnerships Act is intended to better support partnerships between local employers and schools for workforce training. Many students aren’t ready for college at the end of high school, so Craig helped introduce the Remedial Education Improvement Act to create a grant program allowing federal student aid money to support up to two years of developmental education.
Rep. Angie Craig is Minnesota nice and that helps her be a work horse when it comes to passing legislation. She is clearly highly effective at the job and would be a tremendous loss.
Joe Teirab: Minnesota Ice
Joe Teirab was a prosecutor. Now, he’s an anti-abortion zealot running for Congress.
Joe Teirab was born in the Twin Cities area and is 36 years old. He is the son of an immigrant from Sudan who worked in the meatpacking plants of southwestern Minnesota. He matriculated from Harvard Law School but didn’t practice law right away. Instead, he joined the US Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq. After his stint in the Marine Corps, Teirab became an ADA - first in Minnesota and then for the United States.
Teirab is trying to heal a fractured party in his district. He received the statewide party endorsement but not the local party endorsement. Some supporters of Taylor Rahm, his primary opponent, who dropped out, claim that they aren’t voting for Teirab because the candidate promised to drop out if he couldn’t secure local endorsements. Hopefully, this pointless feud continues until election day!
Teirab is mostly a blank slate politically but his past on abortion may come back to haunt him. Teirab is holding to the “let the states decide” line on abortion that nearly all blue-state swing seat Republicans are using. As an undergrad student at Cornell University he was a leader of Cornell Coalition for Life. He was against abortion without exceptions. Furthermore, Teirab was a board member of a Minnesota “crisis pregnancy center” that uses misinformation to harm pregnant women. No wonder the challenger was excited when the Dobbs decision came from the Supreme Court!
Teirab also has problematic comments when it comes to Social Security. He wants to change the retirement age for workers under 40 or allow the program to be partially privatized. He has since attempted to walk back those comments because he knows they are politically damaging.
Teirab, like most of the GOP, has hopped onto the (conservative) parents’ rights agenda as well. He stresses a “back to basics” plan for education because teachers are “indoctrinating kids”. He is also a proponent of budget-busting vouchers and school choice. While there is nothing wrong with accountable charter schools and even proper homeschooling, they should not come at the expense of public schools.
Joe Teirab has policies that aren’t Minnesota nice. Instead, his policies are Minnesota ice which means they are a subtle insult to Minnesotans. The 2nd district can do a lot better than Joe Teirab.
How Can You Help?
This district tends to be the most expensive in Minnesota.
Minnesota’s Second Congressional District is often one of the most expensive races in the state, and recent elections have seen accusations of either side backing “spoiler” candidates to take votes away from the two mainstream party nominees.
Rep. Angie Craig seems ready for it financially while Joe Teirab is lagging behind. Overall, here is where the money race stood at the last filing deadline.
Teirab will still have to overcome Craig’s cash and advertising advantage. She’s been up on air with five TV ads, while Teirab has aired only one. She’s raised more than $6 million compared to Teirab’s $1.7 million.
Q3 numbers are out for Craig:
Teirab will have enough to get his message out so don’t assume he’s finished based on the large gap between the candidates in fundraising.
As of right now, the large-spending independent expenditures have stayed away from this district. Some smaller outfits have helped Rep. Angie Craig though.
Outside special interests are also not spending as much money there as they did in 2022. Two years ago $19 million dollars poured into the race from those groups, the 10th-highest amount among congressional districts in the county, according to the website OpenSecrets. So far this year just over $1 million dollars has been spent, most of it by Democratic interests supporting Craig.
That means Joe Teirab will likely have to win without any outside help. This gives yet another advantage to Rep. Angie Craig in a race where she was already favored. The GOP is running out of time if they want to contest this district.
Craig is running a virtual phone banking operation every Tuesday. That allows anyone interested to help out her campaign. Swing Left is also hosting a special virtual phone bank on Thursday, October 24th as well. Craig also has an extensive door knocking operation including cities such as Hastings, Northfield, Apple Valley, Shakopee, and Eagan. As we head into crunch time, contacting voters becomes more and more important!
Joe Teirab is trying to pull a fast one on Minnesota voters by running from his past on abortion and hiding his comments about Social Security. That isn’t Minnesota nice! Teirab already needed everything to go right but these issues aren’t what he would want front and center.
Rep. Angie Craig is definitely Minnesota nice. She has become a possible negotiator between the parties whenever a crisis looms. She was more partisan in earlier Congresses but now has a bipartisan record to run on. That should serve her well in the 18th most vulnerable seat held by the Democratic Party.
A poll dropped late last night for the race. Looks like the district will be a bellwether for the Presidential race but Rep. Angie Craig is in good shape.
This race has been the epitome of Minnesota nice so far. The question for Rep. Angie Craig is whether she can turn up the heat should the need arise.
Angie Craig for Minnesota-2
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