A federal appeals court declined Friday to overturn Democratic Rep. Angie Craig’s victory in this month’s 2nd Congressional District election. Craig won her second term by about 10,000 votes over Kistner.
Craig had declared victory Wednesday before the race was called. "I am so grateful to the people of this district for giving me an opportunity to return to Congress to continue this important work," she said.
As a former health care executive, Craig has campaigned as a defender of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, which the Trump administration has sought to dismantle. She also supports a reinsurance proposal Republicans have advocated at the state level. She has pushed for a federal version of the program that aims to keep premiums down by subsidizing insurers.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Tyler Kistner’s request to put on hold a lower-court decision that moved the election in Minnesota’s competitive 2nd District — currently represented by U.S. Rep. Angie Craig — back to Nov. 3 after it was initially postponed to February.
In her first two years in Congress, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig has introduced and cosponsored more than 100 bills to lower health care costs and increase access to high-quality health care. Angie’s bill to improve the Affordable Care Act even passed the House with bipartisan support in June, an uncommon success for a freshman congressperson in a divided Washington. With that bill, Angie proved she’ll keep her promise to lower drug prices for Minnesotans and to make big changes to our broken health care system.
As a service to its members, the Minnesota Newspaper Association distributes election questionnaires to candidates running for statewide office. Here are partial questions and answers from Angie Craig and Tyler Kistner running for the U.S. 2nd Congressional District.
“President Trump has recently signed two of my bills into law, that’s as many as any other member of the Minnesota delegation and more than any other freshman member,” Craig told WCCO in a recent interview. One bill extended small business pandemic loans, the second restricts improper payments to government contractors.
Citing this vacancy as a key concern, Craig filed a lawsuit to block the delay. On Oct. 9, a federal judge ruled that the state law is preempted by federal law, requiring the election to stay on schedule.
Minnesota Students for Biden Get Out the Vote organized a student rally with appearances from Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, U.S. Congresswoman Angie Craig and former Presidential hopeful, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The survey, conducted by Democratic polling firm Normington Petts that was commissioned by the Craig campaign, shows 72 percent of voters prefer having the election Nov. 3 while just 15 percent prefer a special election on Feb. 9. Those who prefer the election continue as scheduled include 71 percent of Republicans and 81 percent of Democrats. The poll was conducted Oct. 12-14 among 400 likely voters and has a +/- 4.9-point margin of error.