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Tag: Angie Craig

  • Hundreds march in memory of Alex Pretti nearly one month after his killing

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    Hundreds of people rallied and marched in south Minneapolis Saturday morning to remember the life of Alex Pretti and call for continued change following his death.

    Pretti’s death sparked massive protests and ultimately led to the departure of Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino, who had been handling the control of Operation Metro Surge.

    Four weeks later, roughly 500 federal agents remain in Minnesota, according to Democratic U.S. Reps. Angie Craig and Ilhan Omar. Border czar Tom Homan has also promised a complete drawdown of additional federal agents.

    For protestors on Saturday, it’s been an encouraging sign.

    “I think there was definitely a shift. While we are nowhere near claiming victory, we’re feeling a lot better,” said an organizer, who asked to be only identified as Wes. “We are seeing record volunteer applications across every org, people wanting to get involved more and more every day.”

    For many in the crowd, however, the attention turns to what’s next. For Hans Jorgensen, of St. Paul, that could involve charges for agents involved in the killings of Pretti and Renee Good.

    “I feel like the district attorney should be pushing to gain as much information as we can – they should not be letting this go at all – it should be one of their primary focuses, to make sure the community knows they are working for us,” Jorgensen said.

    For others, it’s simply moving forward as a community.

    “There’s going to be a lot of healing not only as the families affected, just as the communities as a whole, just because of all the disruption that’s gone on to our economy,” said Sammy Hamlin, of Roseville.

    Saturday’s march ended at the memorial for Pretti, just over a mile away from where demonstrators rallied at Whittier Park. 

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    Adam Duxter

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  • Emergency hearing requested after Reps. Craig, Morrison, Omar blocked from Minneapolis ICE facility

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    The Trump administration secretly reimposed a policy limiting Congress members’ access to immigration detention facilities a day after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, attorneys for several congressional Democrats said Monday in asking a federal judge to intervene.

    Three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were blocked from visiting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Minneapolis on Saturday, three days after an ICE officer shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good in the city.

    Last month, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked ICE from enforcing policies limiting Congress members’ access to immigration detention facilities. In a court filing on Monday, plaintiffs’ lawyers asked Cobb to hold an emergency hearing and decide if the duplicate notice policy violates her order.

    Cobb ruled on Dec. 17 that it is likely illegal for ICE to demand a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and observe conditions in ICE facilities. The judge said the seven-day notice requirement likely exceeds the Department of Homeland Security’s statutory authority.

    The attorneys asking Cobb for an emergency hearing say the matter is urgent because members of Congress are negotiating funding for DHS and ICE for the next fiscal year with DHS’s annual appropriations due to expire on Jan. 30.

    “This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be able to conduct oversight at ICE detention facilities, without notice, to obtain urgent and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations,” the lawyers wrote.

    Cobb didn’t immediately rule on the plaintiffs’ hearing request. Government attorneys also didn’t immediately respond in writing to it.

    Representative Kelly Morrison, a Democrat from Minnesota, from left, Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and Representative Angie Craig, a Democrat from Minnesota, arrive for an oversight visit at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in St. Paul, Minnesota, US, on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. The investigation into the killing of a US citizen by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this week is being complicated by clashes between federal and local officials, with the FBI taking control over the objections of Governor Tim Walz.

    Victor J. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images


    On Saturday, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building. They initially were allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.

    Officials who turned them away cited a newly imposed seven-day-notice policy for congressional oversight visits. Last Thursday, a day after Good’s death, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memorandum reinstating the same seven-day notice requirement, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

    Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden, ruled last month in favor of 12 other members of Congress who sued to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities. Their lawsuit accused Republican President Donald Trump’s administration of obstructing congressional oversight of the centers during its nationwide surge in immigration enforcement operations.

    Government attorneys had argued that the plaintiffs didn’t have legal standing to bring their claims. They also said it’s merely speculative for the legislators to be concerned that conditions in ICE facilities change over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments.

    “The changing conditions within ICE facilities means that it is likely impossible for a Member of Congress to reconstruct the conditions at a facility on the day that they initially sought to enter,” Cobb wrote.

    A law bars DHS from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for oversight purposes. Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the Democracy Forward Foundation said the administration hasn’t shown that none of those funds are being used to implement the latest notice policy.

    NOTE: The original airdate of the video attached to this article is Jan. 10, 2026.

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  • 3 congressional lawmakers say they were denied access to ICE facility in Minneapolis

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    Three Democratic congressional lawmakers who represent Minnesota said they were denied access to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on Saturday.

    Reps. Angie Craig, Ilhan Omar and Kelly Morrison told reporters that they were initially allowed into the building, but then informed they must leave. 

    “Shortly after we were let in, two officials came in and said that they received a message that we were no longer allowed to be in the building, and that they were rescinding the invitation to come in and declining any further access from the building,” Omar told reporters while standing outside the facility.

    Added Craig, “The response was that, since the funding for this center came from the one ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ not the congressional appropriations bill, that they were denying our access.”

    From left, Democratic Reps. Kelly Morrison, Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig arrive for an oversight visit at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 10, 2026. 

    Victor J. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images


    Morrrison said in her own social media post that conducting oversight of “American taxpayer-funded facilities is not only our legal right, but our constitutional duty.”

    Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to CBS News Minnesota that lawmakers are required to provide seven days notice of congressional visits. 

    “For the safety of detainees and staff, and in compliance with the agency’s mandate, the Members of Congress were notified that their visit was improper and out of compliance with existing court orders and policies which mandate that members of Congress must notify ICE at least seven days in advance of Congressional visits,” McLaughlin wrote. “Because they were out of compliance with this mandate, Representative Omar and her colleagues were denied entry to the facility.”

    McLaughlin added that Omar, Craig and Morrison “must follow the proper guidelines” if they want to tour the facility.

    The building has been the command center for federal agents in Minnesota. Concrete barriers were set up near the facility on Friday morning, less than a day after a tense protest where federal officers fired pepper balls and surged into a crowd of demonstrators. 

    CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman was reporting in the area during the protest when officers pushed into the crowd behind a cloud of chemical irritants, triggering shoving, panic and screams among the protesters.

    Thursday’s protest and others across Minnesota and the nation come in the wake of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good in south Minneapolis by an ICE officer Wednesday. 

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    Adam Duxter

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  • Reps. Angie Craig, Tom Emmer spar on House floor over Minneapolis ICE shooting

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    The deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis ignited a heated exchange in Washington between two Minnesota lawmakers.

    Democratic Rep. Angie Craig and Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer got into a testy back-and-forth, lasting about 40 seconds on Wednesday.

    A C-SPAN live stream captured the moment during a break on the House floor. It shows Craig getting face-to-face with Emmer, starting an animated argument. 

    She told WCCO she wanted to address what she viewed as Emmer’s lack of standing up for Minnesotans, after he made several posts Wednesday on Facebook defending ICE’s actions in the state, including the deadly shooting.

    “I’m not going to let my Republican colleagues get away with just ignoring the fact that someone, Renee Good, a woman in Minnesota, was killed yesterday because of these political stunts,” she said.

    Good was shot and killed amid a surge of federal agents in the Twin Cities area as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on immigration and a fraud scandal in Minnesota. 

    Things got so heated between the two House members that someone eventually stepped between Craig and Emmer. Then, fellow Democratic Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum pulled Craig back to separate them.

    In an interview with WCCO, Craig said that her emotions during their exchange were fueled by what she saw in the videos of the ICE shooting.

    When asked how Emmer responded to her, Craig said, “Well, Tom didn’t let me get three words out before he went from zero to 60 mph. So, look, if you can’t have a conversation with someone without it escalating in the first three words, then you’re not really ready to have a conversation and you’re not listening. And I think that’s part of my frustration, is, I want my Republican colleagues to understand and hear me and hear us as Minnesotans that having ICE on the ground in Minnesota is simply not making Minnesota any safer. In fact, it’s having the opposite effect.”

    WCCO reached out to Emmer’s team over the phone and through email, offering an interview to share his side of the story, but has not heard back.

    Craig and several other local Democrats, like Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, are demanding ICE leave Minnesota. 

    When asked what power Congress has to get ICE to leave, Craig said, “Everything is on the table at what Congress might be able to do, including and up to impeaching [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem. This woman is out of control. She’s not there to make our communities any safer.”

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    Jeff Wagner

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  • Minnesota politicians stand with their parties as federal government shutdown looms

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    If lawmakers do not reach an agreement to extend government funding, the federal government will begin shutting down at 12 a.m. on Wednesday.

    Democrats and Republicans in Washington remain at odds over how to fund the government. Even though it may feel a world away from Minnesota, a shutdown would hit close to home.

    Minnesota members of Congress are standing with their parties. 

    “By shutting down the government, Democrats are playing games with our farmers’, ranchers’ and producers’ livelihoods,” Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer posted on X.

    On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Angie Craig blamed the GOP.  

    “People are not going to be able to afford their health care,” said Craig. 

    The battle is focused on roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) — aka “Obamacare” — cuts in President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” It would have a major impact on health care premiums and even determine who qualifies for ACA subsidies.

    ACA tax credits that were passed in 2021 expanded access to Medicaid funding from 11 million people to 24 million people. Those tax credits expire at the end of 2025.

    The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that for a Minnesota family with a household income of $100,000, premiums on the exchange would go from $523 a month to $830 a month starting Jan. 1, 2026.

    The American Federation of Government Employees is the union that represents 800,000 federal employees who wont be getting paid.

    “I mean, they say that they’re going to terminate folks that end up getting furloughed as part of a shutdown,” said federation vice president Ruark Hotopp. “That’s going to be, you know, thousands of employees without paychecks, and that’ll hurt them directly, but then that’s going to have an impact on the economy and the jobs market as well.”

    For both sides, there is frustration that this entire debate, and the entire possible government shutdown, is over a funding bill that would fund the government for only six weeks, until Nov. 21. Then it’s likely they will have to do it all over again.

    Esme Murphy

    Esme Murphy, a reporter and Sunday morning anchor for WCCO-TV, has been a member of the WCCO-TV staff since December 1990. She is also a weekend talk show host on WCCO Radio. Born and raised in New York City, Esme ventured into reporting after graduating from Harvard University.

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    Esme Murphy

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  • Joe Teirab ad blames Angie Craig for a series of problems from inflation to corruption — but is it true?

    Joe Teirab ad blames Angie Craig for a series of problems from inflation to corruption — but is it true?

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    Reality Check: Joe Teirab attacks Angie Craig in political ad


    Reality Check: Joe Teirab attacks Angie Craig in political ad

    02:06

    By Pat Kessler

    MINNEAPOLIS — A campaign ad from Republican congressional candidate Joe Teirab is making waves in Minnesota’s 2nd District race. 

    That ad blames Democratic Representative Angie Craig for a series of problems from inflation to corruption — but is it true?

    As the former Marine and federal prosecutor is jogging, he links three-term Democrat Angie Craig to skyrocketing inflation — and much more — with the number 20% projected on a building wall.

    “Career politicians like Angie Craig are killing the American Dream,” Teirab says in the ad. “Skyrocketing inflation, open borders, insider deals and corruption.”

    The 20% inflation claim is a whopper and it needs context.

    U.S. inflation did not hit 20%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. It did reach a painful 9.1% one month in 2022 following the pandemic. It is now 2.5%.

    Consumer prices did climb about 20% in the last four years compared to around 8% under former President Trump.

    In the ad, Teirab calls Craig a career politician.

    “Now, I’m running for Congress because career politicians like Angie Craig,” he says in the ad.

    Craig is not a career politician by almost any definition. She has served six years in Congress. Before that, she was a longtime business executive in Minnesota.

    “Open borders” is a derogatory political phrase aimed at Democrats.

    It is not a policy and it is false to say Craig is in favor of no security measures at the border.

    Illegal border crossings are a serious problem and Craig has voted with Republicans for tougher enforcement.

    The Teirab ad also links Craig to “insider deals” and “corruption.” 

    Craig has never been accused of either and it is false to suggest that she has.

    WCCO Staff


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    The WCCO Staff is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on WCCO.com.

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  • Abortion rights could again be key issue in Minnesota’s 2nd District race

    Abortion rights could again be key issue in Minnesota’s 2nd District race

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    MINNEAPOLIS — The race for Congress in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District is set. 

    Former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab will face three-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in the November election.

    Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Among the communities in the district are Red Wing, Hastings and Eagan.

    For years it was represented by Republicans. Craig broke that streak in 2018. Craig has won both her reelection bids in 2020 and 2022 by comfortable margins.

    This year she will face Teirab, a Marine Corps veteran and a former federal and county prosecutor. 

    Craig credits her strong abortion rights positions as helping her clinch her 2022 win. Teirab is a strong opponent of abortion rights. He says abortion should only occur in the instances of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. Teirab, however, says he is against a federal abortion ban. He was a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning at 10:30 a.m. 


    Joe Teirab talks race against Rep. Angie Craig in 2nd District

    04:38

    “When my mom was pregnant with me, it was unplanned and she actually got plugged into what’s called a pregnancy resource center,” Teirab said. “Just encouraged my mom, loved my mom and encouraged her to have me. So I am here to this day because of that and so I want to do what we can to make sure that we’re supporting women who are facing these tough circumstances.”

    Teirab has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Teirab said the economy under Trump was better for the average American, including those living in the 2nd District.

    While he was a federal prosecutor, Teirab lived in Minnetonka, which is in the 3rd Congressional District, but late last year he moved to Burnsville, which is in the 2nd District. While nearly all members of Congress live in the district they represent, it is not a requirement. In fact, the last Republican to represent the 2nd Congressional District, Jason Lewis, lived just outside the District boundaries.

    Craig will be a guest on a future edition of WCCO Sunday Morning.

    You can watch WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy and Adam Del Rosso every Sunday at 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

    Esme Murphy


    esme-murphy.png

    Esme Murphy, a reporter and Sunday morning anchor for WCCO-TV, has been a member of the WCCO-TV staff since December 1990. She is also a weekend talk show host on WCCO Radio. Born and raised in New York City, Esme ventured into reporting after graduating from Harvard University.

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    Esme Murphy

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  • To a defiant Biden, the 2024 race is up to the voters, not to Democrats on Capitol Hill

    To a defiant Biden, the 2024 race is up to the voters, not to Democrats on Capitol Hill

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    WILMINGTON, Del. – To a defiant President Joe Biden, the 2024 election is up to the public — not the Democrats on Capitol Hill. But the chorus of Democratic voices calling for him to step aside is growing, from donors, strategists, lawmakers and their constituents who say he should bow out.

    The party has not fallen in line behind him even after the events that were set up as part of a blitz to reset his imperiled campaign and show everyone he wasn’t too old to stay in the job or to do it another four years.

    On Saturday, a fifth Democratic lawmaker said openly that Biden should not run again. Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota said that after what she saw and heard in the debate with Republican rival Donald Trump, and Biden’s “lack of a forceful response” afterward, he should step aside “and allow for a new generation of leaders to step forward.”

    Craig posted one of the Democrats’ key suburban wins in the 2018 midterms and could be a barometer for districts that were vital for Biden in 2020.

    With the Democratic convention approaching and just four months to Election Day, neither camp in the party can much afford this internecine drama much longer. But it is bound to drag on until Biden steps aside or Democrats realize he won’t and learn to contain their concerns about the president’s chances against Trump.

    There were signs party leaders realize the standoff needs to end. Some of the most senior lawmakers, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Rep. James Clyburn, were now publicly working to bring the party back to the president. Pelosi and Clyburn had both raised pointed questions about Biden in the aftermath of the debate.

    “Biden is who our country needs,” Clyburn said late Friday after Biden’s interview with ABC aired.

    On Saturday, Biden’s campaign said the president joined a biweekly meeting with all 10 of the campaign’s nation co-chairs to “discuss their shared commitment to winning the 2024 race.” Clyburn was among them.

    But the silence from most other House Democrats on Saturday was notable, suggesting that lawmakers are not all being convinced by what they saw from the president. More House Democrats are likely to call for Biden to step aside when lawmakers return to Washington at the start of the week.

    Biden had no public schedule Saturday, as he and aides stepped back from the fervor over the past few days. But the president will head out campaigning again on Sunday in Philadelphia, intent on putting the debate behind him. And this coming week, the U.S. is hosting the NATO summit and the president is to hold a news conference.

    Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned Saturday in New Orleans, but she steered clear of questions about whether Biden should step away.

    The president’s ABC interview on Friday night — billed as an effort to get the campaign back on track — stirred carefully worded expressions of disappointment from the party’s ranks, and worse from those who spoke anonymously. Ten days into the crisis moment of the Biden-Trump debate, Biden is dug in.

    Even within the White House there were concerns the ABC interview wasn’t enough to turn the page.

    Campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez has been texting lawmakers and administration officials are encouraging them not to go public with their concerns about the race and the president’s electability, according to a Democrat granted anonymity to discuss the situation.

    Democrats are wrestling over what they see and hear from the president but are not at all certain about a path forward. They were particularly concerned that Biden suggested that even if he were to be defeated in a rematch with Trump, he would know that he gave it his all. That seemed an insufficient response.

    “A lot can change in the next 72 to 96 hours, because that’s what happens nowadays,” Hawaii Gov. Mark Green said Saturday. “You know, four months is an eternity in today’s political world. I’m not worried about making sure we have a great ticket if the president chose some other road.”

    But Green said he also wants to “respect the president and give him the time to make this decision. And if he decides to be our nominee, he’s it. And we’ll go all in against Mr. Trump because he doesn’t represent the right values for our people.”

    As Biden’s camp encourages House lawmakers to give the president the chance to show what he can do, one Democratic aide said the Friday interview didn’t help and in fact made things worse. The aide expects more Democrats will likely be calling on Biden to step aside.

    Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, without breaking with Biden at this point, are pulling together meetings with members in the next few days to discuss options. Many lawmakers are hearing from constituents at home and fielding questions. One senator was working to get others together to ask him to step aside.

    Following the interview, a Democratic donor reported that many of the fellow donors he spoke with were furious, particularly because the president declined to acknowledge the effects of his aging. Many of those donors are seeking a change in leadership at the top of the ticket, said the person, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

    Biden roundly swatted away calls Friday to step away from the race, telling voters at a Wisconsin rally, reporters outside Air Force One and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he was not going anywhere.

    “Completely ruling that out,” he told reporters at the rally.

    Biden dismissed those who were calling for his ouster, instead saying he’d spoken with 20 lawmakers and they had all encouraged him to stay in the race.

    Concern about Biden’s fitness for another four years has been persistent. In an August 2023 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, fully 77% of U.S. adults said Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. Not only did 89% of Republicans say that, but so did 69% of Democrats. His approval rating stands at 39% in the most recent AP-NORC poll.

    Biden has dismissed the polling, citing as evidence his 2020 surge to the nomination and win over Trump, after initially faltering, and the 2022 midterm elections, when many expected Republicans would sweep but they didn’t, in part over the issue of abortion rights.

    “I don’t buy that,” when he was reminded that he was behind in recent polls. “I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be president or win this race than me.”

    At times, Biden rambled during the interview, which ABC said aired in full and without edits. Asked how he might turn the race around, Biden argued that one key would be large and energetic rallies like the one he held Friday in Wisconsin. When reminded that Trump routinely draws larger crowds, the president laid into his opponent.

    “Trump is a pathological liar,” Biden said, accusing Trump of bungling the federal response to the COVID pandemic and failing to create jobs. “You ever see something that Trump did that benefited someone else and not him?”

    Republicans, though, are squarely behind their candidate, and support for Trump, who at 78 is three years younger than Biden, has been growing.

    And that’s despite Trump’s 34 felony convictions in a hush money trial, that he was found liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, and that his businesses were found to have engaged in fraud.

    ___

    Miller and Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Saugatuck, Michigan, Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Bill Barrow in New Orleans and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Colleen Long, Zeke Miller And Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press

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  • Rep. Angie Craig calls on Biden to drop out of 2024 presidential race

    Rep. Angie Craig calls on Biden to drop out of 2024 presidential race

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    Biden sits for first interview since debate


    Biden sits down for first interview since debate, says he will not drop out

    04:16

    EAGAN, Minn. — Rep. Angie Craig is calling on President Joe Biden to end his campaign for a second term after his shaky debate performance earlier this week and what she called a “lack of a forceful response.”

    “This is not a decision I’ve come to lightly, but there is simply too much at stake to risk a second Donald Trump presidency,” Craig said in a statement Saturday morning. “That’s why I respectfully call on President Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee for a second term as President and allow for a new generation of leaders to step forward.”

    Craig — who represents Minnesota’s Second Congressional District that encompasses the southern portion of the Twin Cities metro and communities such as Lakeville, Eagan, and Northfield — is one of a handful of representatives to call on Biden to step aside. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas was the first Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to drop out of the race in the wake of his debate performance. 

    “I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump,” Craig wrote. “If we truly believe that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans must be stopped, there is only a small window left to make sure we have a candidate best equipped to make the case and win. This future of our country is bigger than any one of us. It’s up to the President from here.”

    Biden, however, has vowed that he will stay in the race.

    On Wednesday evening Biden met with a coalition of Democratic governors to quell their concerns following his lackluster debate performance. Afterwards, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said he was “fit for office,” and pledged his support.

    Biden made a campaign stop in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Friday, and reiterated that he won’t be forced out as the Democratic presidential nominee. In an interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, he declined to agree to an independent neurological assessment, and said the only thing that could persuade him he could lose to former President Donald Trump is if the “Lord Almighty” came down and told him so.

    This is a developing story. Check back with WCCO.com for more.

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    Aki Nace

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  • Rep. Angie Craig’s alleged attacker to remain in jail for at least another month

    Rep. Angie Craig’s alleged attacker to remain in jail for at least another month

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    Rep. Angie Craig’s alleged attacker to remain in jail for at least another month – CBS News


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    The man accused of attacking Congresswoman Angie Craig will remain in jail for at least another month. Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, revealed that she has been receiving politically-motivated threats since her assault. CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane joins us with more.

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  • GOP stumbles with independents contributed to midterm woes

    GOP stumbles with independents contributed to midterm woes

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    EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — As Republican Tyler Kistner’s closing ad aired last month in one of the most competitive congressional districts in the U.S., Vickie Klang felt that something was missing.

    The 58-year-old veterinary technician and self-described independent voter watched as the 30-second spot showed grainy black-and-white images of President Joe Biden with two-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig superimposed alongside him. The narrator ominously described life in America as “dangerous and unaffordable” because of an alliance between the two Democrats.

    Absent from the ad, Klang thought, was anything close to a solution beyond electing Kistner.

    “You’re never telling me what you’re going to do for the state or the country,” Klang recalled. “That’s a huge turnoff.”

    Klang ultimately backed Craig, contributing to a 5 percentage point win for a Democratic incumbent whom Republicans spent more than $12 million to unseat. From Maine to California, Republicans faced similar unexpected setbacks with the small but crucial slice of voters who don’t identify with either major party, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping national survey of the electorate.

    Republican House candidates nationwide won the support of 38% of independent voters in last month’s midterm elections, VoteCast showed. That’s far short of the 51% that Democrats scored with the same group in 2018 when they swept into power by picking up 41 seats. The GOP’s lackluster showing among independents helps explain why Republicans flipped just nine seats, securing a threadbare majority that has already raised questions about the party’s ability to govern.

    Some Republican strategists say the finding is a sign that messages that resonate during party primaries, including searing critiques of Biden, were less effective in the general election campaign because independent voters were searching for more than just the opposition.

    “You’ve got to tell them what you’re going to do,” said David Winston, a Republican pollster and senior adviser to House Republicans who had been critical of GOP candidates’ messaging strategy this year. “Somehow the Republican campaigns managed not to do that. And that’s a real serious problem.”

    In the northern reaches of Minnesota’s 2nd congressional district, a swath of lakes and onetime farm country teeming with development near the Twin Cities, more than a dozen independent voters echo Winston’s assessment.

    Unlike Klang, who grew up in a union Democratic household, Steve Stauff of Shakopee, 20 miles (32 kilometers) west, was raised in a rural, conservative Republican home. The two share a recent history of voting for Republican and Democratic statewide candidates, as well as for independent candidate for governor Jesse Ventura in 1998.

    But Kistner’s message, like those of other losing Republican challengers in targeted races, appeared aimed more at Republicans than swing voters: simply linking Craig with Biden, whose job disapproval ratings had outpaced approval, and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, widely unpopular with Republicans.

    House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy came out with a campaign proposal in September titled “Commitment to America,” billed as a GOP agenda. However, the proposal, a collection of repackaged goals such as increased domestic petroleum production, was light on details and mentioned little during the campaign.

    “We were just being told, ‘Pelosi bad, Biden bad, therefore Craig bad,’ instead of hearing ‘This is my plan to represent this district,’” said Stauff, a 42-year-old sales representative. “If you don’t bring me solutions to whatever problems you think we have, how can I take you seriously?”

    VoteCast suggests that independent voters distinguished between the problems facing the U.S. and Biden’s culpability for them. While few independents said the economy is doing well and about two-thirds disapproved of Biden’s handling of it, independents were slightly more likely to say inflation is the result of factors outside Biden’s control than that Biden is to blame, 51% to 47%, according to the survey.

    But that nuance was often missing from the GOP’s political message.

    An October Kistner ad included the claim, “Feeling hopeless? Thank Joe Biden and Angie Craig,” a point that failed to land with Kathy Lewis, an independent voter from Lakeville, Minnesota.

    “I understand how that is so hard on people,” said Lewis, a 71-year-old school board member in the Republican-leaning exurb southwest of St. Paul. “I’ve never really believed the president, no matter who it is … ever really controlled the inflation. They may have had an effect on it, but they didn’t really control it one way or the other.”

    Democrats did significantly better among true independents and those who lean toward a party than they have in recent midterms when they have also held the White House, according to analysis of Pew Research Center post-election surveys of self-identified voters in 2014, 2010 and 1998.

    While questions remained into the fall about the role the Supreme Court’s June decision overturning the 1973 landmark abortion rights precedent Roe v. Wade would play in the election, several 2nd District Minnesota independents cited it as a driving issue in their support for Craig.

    About 7 in 10 independent voters who don’t side with either party think abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to VoteCast, which also found many voters across party lines were hesitant to support candidates who were considered extreme.

    Pamela Olson, an independent from rural Farmington, Minnesota, said she doesn’t typically vote on a single issue. Nor did she vote for Craig in 2020. That changed with the court’s decision, in light of Craig’s support for abortion rights and Kistner’s opposition in most cases.

    “It’s about freedoms in this country. And I think it is completely up to a woman and her doctor,” said Olson, a 56-year-old engineer. “There needs to be a choice for those individuals, not for somebody else to tell you what to do.”

    Besides the contention that GOP candidates did not focus on independents, Winston suggests that independent voters might be hesitating to lurch toward the alternative after the turmoil of Donald Trump’s presidency.

    “Change has to be something they are willing to vote for, as opposed to just the kneejerk reaction that ‘this is bad so I’m just going to go another direction,’” Winston said.

    ___

    Fingerhut reported from Washington.

    ___

    Find the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. Learn more details about AP VoteCast’s methodology at https://www.ap.org/votecast.

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