Angie Craig
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 2nd district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2019
Preceded by	Jason Lewis
Personal details
Born	Angela Dawn Craig (1972-02-14) February 14, 1972 (age 49) West Helena, Arkansas, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Cheryl Greene
Children	4
Education	University of Memphis (BA)
Website	House website Campaign website

Angela Dawn Craig (born February 14, 1972) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative from Minnesota's 2nd congressional district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she defeated incumbent Republican Jason Lewis in the 2018 election.^[1] The district includes most of the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities, such as Burnsville, Eagan, Inver Grove Heights, Apple Valley, Lakeville, and Shakopee.

Early life and career

Craig was born in West Helena, Arkansas, in 1972.^[2][3] She graduated from Nettleton High School in Jonesboro, Arkansas,^[4] and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Memphis.^[5]

After college, Craig interned at The Commercial Appeal and became a full-time reporter.^[6] She lived in London from 2002 through 2005,^[3][7] and worked at St. Jude Medical in human resources and communications from 2005 to 2017.^[8][9][10]

U.S. House of Representatives

Craig at a campaign event in Apple Valley, Minnesota

Elections

2016

In 2016, Craig ran for the United States House of Representatives in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district.^[11] She announced her candidacy before Republican incumbent John Kline announced his retirement.^[9] She faced no opposition in the Democratic primary. In the general election, she faced former conservative talk show host Jason Lewis.^[11] She lost by fewer than 7,000 votes.

2018

Craig sought a rematch with Lewis in the 2018 elections.^[8] As in 2016, she was unopposed in the Democratic primary. She defeated Lewis, becoming the first openly lesbian mother to be elected to Congress, the first woman to be elected in Minnesota's 2nd district, and the first openly gay person elected to Congress from Minnesota.^[12][13] Craig received 52.6% of the vote, winning three of the six counties in the district.^[14][15]

When she took office in January 2019, she became the first Democrat to represent Minnesota's 2nd district since it assumed its current configuration in 2003.^{[citation needed]}

2020

In a verified recording, Legal Marijuana Now Party nominee Adam Weeks said that Republican operatives offered him $15,000 to run for Congress in the 2nd district in order to "pull votes away" from Craig. Weeks said, "They want me to run as a third-party, liberal candidate, which I'm down. I can play the liberal, you know that."^[16][17] Leaders of prominent pro-marijuana legalization groups Minnesotans for Responsible Marijuana Regulation, Sensible Change Minnesota, and Minnesota NORML condemned the GOP strategy as "unconscionable".^[16]

In late September, Weeks died of a drug overdose, throwing the election into chaos. Minnesota law requires a special election if a major-party nominee dies within 79 days of Election Day. The law was enacted to prevent a repeat of the circumstances of the 2002 U. S. Senate election, in which incumbent Paul Wellstone died 11 days before the general election. Since the Legal Marijuana Now Party was a major party in Minnesota (by virtue of its 2018 candidate for state auditor winning five percent of the vote), the 2nd District race was set to be postponed to February 9, 2021.^[18] Craig sued to keep the election on November 3, arguing that the requirement for a special election could leave the 2nd district without representation for almost a month, and also violated federal election law.^[19] Republican nominee Tyler Kistner joined the Minnesota Secretary of State as a defendant. The federal judge hearing the case ruled for Craig, noting that federal election law barred moving the date of House elections in all but a few circumstances. Kistner appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which also sided with Craig. The appeals court held that the death of a candidate from a party with "modest electoral strength" could not justify postponing the election. After Kistner's appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected, the election was cleared to continue as scheduled on November 3.^{[17][20][21][22][23]}

Tenure

According to the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, Craig held a Bipartisan Index Score of 0.3 in the 116th United States Congress for 2019, placing her 114th out of 435 members.^[24] Based on FiveThirtyEight's congressional vote tracker at ABC News, Craig voted with Donald Trump's stated public policy positions 5.5% of the time,^[25] putting her below average in the 116th United States Congress when predictive scoring (district partisanship and voting record) is used.^[26]

Committee assignments

• Committee on Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit
  • Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Aviation
  • Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
  • Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
• Committee on Small Business
  • Rural Development, Agriculture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship
  • Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations

Caucus memberships

• Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus (Co-Chair)^[27]
• Congressional Progressive Caucus (2019-2021)^{[citation needed]}
• New Democrat Coalition^[28]

Electoral history

Personal life

Craig lives in Eagan, Minnesota.^[11] She and her wife, Cheryl Greene, have four children.^[32] She is Lutheran.^[33]