Democratic Congress Member Angie Craig– “Joe Must Withdraw From Running” July 28, 2024
I, like many other Democrats, was horrified and depressed by President Biden’s awful June 27, 2024 sub-par debate against Demagogue Donald, one which Biden should have easily won. Instead, Biden mumbled, stuttered, and spoke softly with a hoarse voice. He seemed to have had no energy. He had trouble putting words and sentences together and meandered all over the place, instead of giving clear crisp answers. He was unable to go on offense and refute Donald’s numerous small and big lies, which he should have known were coming. After all, in 2020, Biden had successfully debated Donald several times and knew what a serial liar he had been then and throughout his entire life. Biden stated that he had a cold and felt miserable during his 2024 debate. He later said he did not get enough sleep. Message to Biden: Presidents are not elected to get eight hours of sleep.They must be ready to face domestic and foreign crises at any time day or night and think clearly about such situations when called to respond. Biden was unable to put to rest, with this debate, the perception many people hold about him that at 81 he would be too old for a second term and have increasing cognitive difficulties. Remember, should he win reelection, that second term would end for him at 86. Biden’s July 5, 2024 interview with George Stephanopoulos, in which he tried to show that his debate performance was just him having one outlier “bad night” did not, IMHO, help him. He still had his hoarse soft voice and, again, went off message, giving some of the same bad talking points he had used during the debate. And I was not the only one who felt that way. Several analysts and many Democratic Congress members felt the same way. Many are wondering if there is something physically wrong with him. In any event, lots of prominent Democrats, including fundraisers, activists, and at least five “Team Blue” House members have called upon Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. In the Senate, Mark Warner (D-VA) is in the process of putting together a group of fellow Democrats who will also call on Biden to not run for re-election (See nytimes.com). Four of the House Democrats in the “don’t run again Biden camp” are fairly strong liberals who are in safe congressional districts. However, on July 6, 2024, the fifth Democrat in this group, Minnesota’s Angie Craig also called on Biden to drop out. Cong. Craig is the first member of a swing battleground district to call for Biden to drop out (politico.com/news, 7/06/24). Many Democrats, even those in safe districts, privately fear that if Biden runs again he may lose to Demagogue Donald who is out to destroy democracy. A Biden loss could keep the Democrats from retaking the House and make them lose the Senate as well. Who is Angie Craig?
Second-term Democrat Angie Craig (52) currently represents Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District (CD). The current Gopher State 2nd is centered in the south suburbs of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul (Cohen & Cook 2022 Political Almanac).This area contains big box stores that cater to the young families that have moved here and who work in managerial business and technical careers. The cities of Eagan, Lakeville, Apple Valley, Mendota Heights, and Burnsville in the 2nd’s Dakota County have become fast-growing suburbs. The 2nd’s upscale Scott County has grown impressively. The city of St. Paul in Ramsey County is about the same size as suburban Dakota and Scott Counties. In recent years, these suburban areas, because of their good schools and low crime rates, have seen an influx of lower-income residents (Cohen & Cook 2022). The Minnesota Vikings National Football League team relocated to the 2nd in the Viking Lakes neighborhood. Cottage Grove, part of the 2nd, is the home of 3M, a major global innovation company. Lakeville has been ranked by Money Magazine as one of the “50 best places to live.” Pine Bend Refinery, the largest oil refinery in MN, owned by right-wing Koch Industries, lies in the Gopher 2nd (Cohen & Cook, wiki). Northfield is the home of Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges. Politically, as was previously mentioned, the MN 2nd has become a battleground.Its most recent Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI) is a D+1, as marginally Democratic as one can get. Dakota County, just south of St. Paul casts about 60% of the MN 2nd’s votes. Dakota has been marginally “Blue,” but,today, is quite swingy. Adjacent Scott County has MN’s highest median income. It has become less solidly GOP than it was in Reagan’s time. Scott County presently casts about one-third as many votes as Dakota. In 2016, Donald won the 2nd CD by one percentage vote or just more than 4,000 votes. In 2020, Biden won the 2nd by more than 29,000 votes, 52%-45%. I repeat– the 2nd is deemed extremely competitive by political analysts. Since 2000, the Gopher 2nd has been a presidential bellwether that has voted for the winner each time (wiki,election results, MN 2nd). In 2008 and 2012, Democrat Obama won nail-biting contests here (wiki, MN 2nd). An issue involving Biden’s health can flip this area to Trump, and, therefore, Biden can ill-afford to lose this key district.
Democratic Cong. Craig’s life story is compelling. An Arkansas native, she was raised by a single mother in a trailer park, but graduated from the University of Memphis.Craig is the first openly LGBTQ member of Congress from MN and the first lesbian mother to serve in Congress (thenation.com, Wiener, J., 9/02/16). Even before gay marriages were recognized, Craig won a 2000 custody battle for her child in Tennessee, with her then-partner as adoptive parent. After moving to MN, she married her wife and they now have four children (Cohen & Cook 2022). After graduating college, Craig interned for the Memphis “Commercial Appeal” and became a full-time reporter. She lived in London, England from 2002-2005 (Gessner, J., 9/22/16, Montgomery, D., 10/07/16, twincities.com). In MN, Craig became a top executive of two-medical device companies, part of a major industry in the Twin Cities area. She spent a decade with the St. Paul-based St. Jude Medical Foundation, which specialized in cardiovascular technology. Craig then supervised and directed that company’s political action committee which mainly contributed to Republicans (Cohen & Cook 2022).
In 2016, Craig first ran for Congress against conservative and well-known Twin Cities talk show host Jason Lewis. Despite comments that were called racist and sexist by Democrats, Trump’s victory in the 2nd helped Lewis defeat Craig by two points with help from a liberal leaning third party candidate spoiler. In a 2018 rematch, Craig defeated Lewis by 6 points. She attacked Lewis for supporting Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court and for defending men who inappropriately touched women. In 2020, Craig barely beat her GOP opponent, by 2.26 points. In a 2022 rematch against that same GOP rival,Tyler Kistner, Craig won, this time by just over five points, still a close contest in a tough district (Electoral History, MN’s 2nd CD).
In the House, Cong. Craig pushes for bipartisanship. She currently sits on the Agriculture and Energy & Commerce Committees (CQ 118th Congress At Your Fingertips). Out of 435 House members, Craig, in 2019, placed 114th, according to Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. In 2023, Cong. Craig voted in line with Biden’s positions just 70.6% of the time, the fourth lowest rate of any House member in the Democratic Caucus (abcnews.go.com, Yang & Burton). In the House, Cong. Craig, with an eye on her competitive district, pushes hard for bipartisanship. She was a founding member of the Congressional Supply Chain Caucus. That group, containing both Democrats and GOP members, stood for getting medical supplies and devices faster by coordinating better with states, the federal government, and the private sector (See Cohen & Cook 2022). On February 25, 2022, Cong. Craig introduced the Affordable Insulin Now Act, a bill intending to cap out- of- pocket insulin prices at $35 per month, legislation that passed the House (startribune.com, Hunter, W.). Lutheran Cong. Craig voted to provide Israel with support following Hamas’s 2023 surprise barbaric attack against it (nytimes.com, Demirjian, K., 10/25/25). Cong. Craig herself faced a harrowing experience in her own residence. On February 9, 2023, she was physically assaulted in the elevator of her D.C. apartment building. Her assailant was sentenced to 27 months in prison (cnn.com, Lybrand, H.,11/16/23). She is a member of the LGBTQ Equality Caucus, the House Pro-Choice Caucus, and the New Democrat Coalition (wiki).
IMHO, Cong. Craig is the kind of Democrat we can ill afford to lose, and she would probably be defeated should the GOP take back the House. She is one of the Democrats we need to keep in order to take back the House. I have been, as you probably know, a strong supporter of President Biden. His record in passing key legislation has been outstanding. He has been currently ranked a high #14 by presidential historians, while his opponent Demagogue Donald is rightly rated dead last. Again, from what I see, Biden has lost more than a step and his age/health has caught up with him. He must, in my view, as Cong. Craig said, not run again. It is time to “pass the torch” to VP Kamala Harris or another outstanding Democrat of whom we now have an “embarrassment of riches.” Democracy, as Biden has repeatedly stated, is on the line in 2024. He must not say, as he did in his interview with Stephanopoulos, that all that matters is that when he runs again, even if he loses to Donald, he “gave it his best.” He must put the country over himself and retire as a true statesperson. He must save our democracy.
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