by Dan Burns

Mar 8, 2026, 7:30 AM

Is Angie Craig really changing her political ways?

(I was pointed to some of what’s in this by an email I got from Indivisible.)

From last week:

In a key backtrack during Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic Rep. Angie Craig said Monday she regrets a vote in support of an immigration law sought by President Donald Trump that provided agents more detention power.

Last January’s passage of the Laken Riley Act, — allowing for detention of noncitizens without bail if they’re charged with burglary, assaulting a police officer or other crimes — saw little Democratic support. But Craig, who represents the swing 2nd Congressional District, was the only Minnesota DFL member to break ranks.
(MPR)

From the email I noted above:

Craig was a leader of the Democratic capitulation caucus in the House for much of last year. She hit the ground running by joining the Republicans last January to pass the Laken Riley Act, further empowering ICE to strip immigrants of their rights. A few months later she voted to thank ICE for its service. To put that into context, there are 214 Democrats in the House. Only about 40 of them voted for both. None of the Democrats from Minnesota voted for either…except Angie Craig.

The dirty cherry on top of all of this is where Craig gets her money. Chuck Schumer is raising money for her. Crypto is coming in big for her. According to the nonpartisan Open Secrets organization, her biggest contributor to her last campaign was…AIPAC!

In the email there’s a hyperlink to a page that confirms what they say about Angie and AIPAC. She has been opposing Trump’s war in Iran, though there’s nothing politically unsafe about that.

Politicians can genuinely change. Certainly for me Joe Biden, after he became president, was a pleasant surprise on much domestic (though not at all on foreign) policy. But faking it and being weasels is much more common.

My own take is that Rep. Craig does understand that she’s made mistakes and has been too tolerant and yielding regarding the Trump administration and its allies in Congress. But she only gets that to a limited extent, and is still far too “centrist” and corporate-friendly in general. And since there’s already a genuine progressive in the race, namely Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, how I’ll be voting in the primary has been a foregone conclusion from the beginning in any case.

Comment from Joe Musich: I hope the Dems take the Senate. I think it would be good for Flanagan to start a youth caucus. I have no doubt one is needed to push back against the old guard who have in their minds that they “have the way!”

Comment from Mac Hall:My concerns over Angie Craig’s pro-business stance during her first campaign have been proven out by her votes since her first election, but that has not hurt her as voters in the Second District have re-elected her.

My television is showing commercials magnifying Craig’s Laken Riley vote and I dismissed them since 48 House Democrats voted YES … which is a significant number … and didn’t 12 Senate Democrats also vote YES? This legislation was previously approved by the House in March 2024 with Craig joining 36 other Democrats to vote YES … so she has been consistent on that legislation and the voters did not punish her in the 2024 election.

IMO, Craig has worked with Republicans (and that is probably hurting her now), but that should mean that there could be some bipartisan solutions (she has consistently delivered for infrastructure projects, plus she has the right positions on Women’s issues including reproductive freedom.) She is a strong advocate for farmers and veterans (although I do not agree with all of her positions).

The DFL primary should determine who our next Senator is as I don’t think that David Hann, Michele Tafoya or Royce White will be able to generate enough excitement to beat whichever DFL candidate wins the primary.