The fight to elect progressive leadership to Minnesota
“Here’s what’s so interesting to me about Minnesota,” says Mattias Lehman, a Progressive Turnout Project Field Representative in the state’s 2nd Congressional District (MN-02). “It’s a state so blue it went for Democrats even when Reagan won every other state in 1984, and yet its state legislature is split. And then there’s the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and Minnesota being the #10 union membership state” in the nation.
Clearly Mattias has done his homework, and it’s led him to believe that “Minnesota is the type of state where we can really reignite the vision of a society where we look out for everybody, not just the uber-wealthy.” 
The Republican incumbent in MN-02, Jason Lewis, is facing stiff competition from Democratic candidate Angie Craig. It’s not the first time Lewis and Craig have faced off for this seat; in 2016, Lewis defeated Craig by a very small margin, claiming 47% of the vote compared to her 45%.
The Cook Political Report has identified the race for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District as “the only highly competitive race in the country that’s a rematch from 2016,” when Lewis and Craig were joined on the ballot by Independent Paula Overby, who took 8% of the vote. Overby will not split the Congressional ticket this year; instead, she is running a futile race for Minnesota Senate against Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar, the latter a rising star in the Democratic party and one of all too few heroes in the recent Brett Kavanaugh Senate Confirmation Hearings.
In mid-September, The Cook Political Report changed its rating of the race for MN-02 from Toss-Up to Lean Democrat.
Craig’s campaign is armed with a compelling personal story: Angie Craig grew up in an Arkansas mobile home park, raised by her single mother with the help of her grandmother, and put herself through state college by working two jobs. She began her career as a newspaper reporter and went on to lead a 16,000-person workforce as a human resources professional.
In her official biography, Craig writes, “I was lucky. It’s clear to me that most Americans’ hard work isn’t paying off like it did for me.” It was this realization, she says, that inspired her to run for Congress.
Craig supports affordable healthcare for all, a topic on which she speaks with authority, recounting a period in her own childhood spent without health insurance. Promising to “repair our healthcare system, starting with immediate fixes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” Craig demonstrates keen understanding of the issues facing voters in her District; many are self-employed and currently unable to afford the health insurance plans offered in the individual marketplace. Craig is also an advocate of small business development and entrepreneurship, and vows to support funding for public education, which she emphasizes should include not only affordable college, but also career training and re-training.
“Everybody seems to have education on their minds,” says Mattias. “Whether they’re graduates struggling to deal with their educational loans, students afraid of the debt they’re racking up, or parents wanting the best for their kids. I’ve also run into a lot of union teachers, including one who had been pink slipped twice in the last 5 years.”
Craig’s opponent, Lewis, is an unapologetic bigot whose opposition to same-sex marriage is deeply personal to Craig, a gay woman. Craig and her wife, Cheryl Greene, are the proud adoptive parents of four sons, three of whom are in college, the youngest still in high school.
“Jason Lewis hosted a radio talk show which stoked divisive ethno-nationalism and partisan hatred in the United States,” says Mattias. “I think Angie Craig defeating him would send a strong message throughout MN-02 that politics is not going to be about hate anymore.”
According to Mattias, voters in MN-02 are expressing wishes for the reinstatement of civility in American politics – an issue that should be of bipartisan concern.
“On my first day,” Mattias recounts, “I knocked on the door of a teacher who told me that she cared about a lot of the usual issues – the environment, jobs, healthcare – but above all she wanted politicians – and society – to ‘be kind to each other.’ It’s rough to acknowledge that’s where we are right now, but it stuck out to me.”
Mattias had heard all about “Minnesota Nice” before moving from Los Angeles to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but it wasn’t until block-walking his District that he found out “just how accommodating so many Minnesotans are.”
“At one door,” Mattias recalls, “this middle aged woman invited me in for coffee, then she offered to make me lunch, then she made sure I used the restroom before she sent me on my way.” Jokingly, he adds, “I was pretty sure she was going to offer me a job or adopt me or try to get me to go on a date with her daughter by the end of it all.”
Minnesota seems like a good fit for Mattias, and Mattias a good fit for Minnesota.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he says. “I intend on being part of Minnesota’s fight to better reflect the people, but to do that, first I need to learn from the people, and working with Progressive Turnout Project is a good start.”
Sounding every bit the future Progressive leader, Mattias says, “I firmly believe that there is an undercurrent of people out there who just think the government should do the right thing by its people: safeguard our environment, provide a safety net that covers everybody, and build infrastructure that benefits us all. If we can stand for that vision, those people will vote.”
