Angela Dawn Craig (born February 14, 1972) is an American politician, retired journalist, and former businesswoman. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she has served as the

U.S. representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from since 2019. The district includes most of the southern suburbs of the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

and some outlying rural areas. Born and raised in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

, Craig worked in journalism and corporate communications. She moved to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

in 2005 for a job at St. Jude Medical. Craig first ran for Congress in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, losing to Jason Lewis, whom she defeated in their

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

rematch. Craig is the first openly

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

member of Congress from Minnesota and the first lesbian mother to serve in Congress.

Early life and career

Craig was born in

West Helena, Arkansas West Helena is the western portion of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2000 census, this portion of the city population was 8,689. Historically, West Helena and its sister city Helena ...

, in 1972. She graduated from Nettleton High School in Jonesboro and earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in journalism from the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering, the Center for Ea ...

. After college, Craig interned at ''

The Commercial Appeal ''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, als ...

'' and became a full-time reporter. She lived in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

from 2002 through 2005, and worked at St. Jude Medical in

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ...

and communications from 2005 to 2017.

U.S. House of Representatives

Angie Craig at a campaign event in Apple Valley, Minnesota

Elections

2016

In 2016, Craig ran for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in . She announced her candidacy before Republican incumbent John Kline announced his retirement. She faced no opposition in the Democratic primary. In the general election, she faced former conservative talk show host Jason Lewis. She lost by fewer than 7,000 votes.

2018

Craig sought a rematch with Lewis in the 2018 elections. 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. Craig received 52.6% of the vote, winning three of the six counties in the district.

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."Before death, pro-marijuana candidate reportedly said GOP recruited him to "pull votes away" from Minnesota Democrat
'' CBS News'', October 29, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020. Leaders of prominent pro-marijuana legalization groups Minnesotans for Responsible Marijuana Regulation, Sensible Change Minnesota, and Minnesota

NORML The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML ) is a social welfare organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates for the reform of marijuana laws in the United States regarding both medical and non-medical use. Acc ...

condemned the GOP strategy as "unconscionable". 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 Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A ...

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. 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.

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

nominee Tyler Kistner joined the

Minnesota Secretary of State The secretary of state of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of government of the U.S. State of Minnesota. Twenty-two individuals have held the office of secretary of state since statehood. The incumbent is Steve Simon, ...

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.

2022

In the 2022 election, Craig defeated Republican nominee Tyler Kistner in a rematch of the 2020 election with 51% of the vote.

Tenure

According to the

McCourt School of Public Policy The McCourt School of Public Policy is one of ten constituent schools of Georgetown University. The McCourt School offers master's degrees in public policy, international development policy, policy management, data science for public policy, an ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, Craig held a Bipartisan Index Score of 0.3 in the

116th United States Congress The 116th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2019, and ended on Janu ...

for 2019, placing her 114th out of 435 members. During

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

's presidency, Craig voted in line with Trump's stated position 5.5% of the time. As of June 2022, Craig had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time. On February 25, 2022, Craig introduced the Affordable Insulin Now Act, a bill intended to cap out-of-pocket insulin prices at $35 per month. The bill passed the House.

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 Energy and Commerce A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

** Subcommittee on Communications & Technology ** Subcommittee on Consumer Protection & Commerce **

Subcommittee on Health The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health is a subcommittee within the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Jurisdiction The House Subcommittee on Health has general jurisdiction over bills and resolutions relating to pub ...

* Committee on Small Business ** Rural Development, Agriculture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship ** Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations

Past

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. History The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure was formerly known as the Committee on Public Works a ...

(2019–2021)

Caucus memberships

Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus The Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus was formed by openly gay representatives Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank June 4, 2008, to advance LGBT+ rights. The caucus had 165 members (164 Democrats and one Republican, Jeff Van Drew) in the 116t ...

(Co-chair) *

Congressional Progressive Caucus The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is a congressional caucus affiliated with the Democratic Party in the United States Congress. The CPC represents the most left-leaning faction of the Democratic Party. " e Congressional Progressive Cau ...

(2019-2021) *

New Democrat Coalition The New Democrat Coalition is a caucus in the House of Representatives of the United States Congress made up of Democrats, primarily centrists, who take a pro-business stance and a moderate-to-conservative approach to fiscal matters. As of ...

* House Pro-Choice Caucus

Electoral history

Personal life

In 2020, Craig moved to

Prior Lake, Minnesota Prior Lake is an exurban city southwest of Minneapolis seated next to Savage and Shakopee in Scott County in the state of Minnesota. Surrounding the shores of Lower and Upper Prior Lake, the city lies south of the Minnesota River in an area k ...

, after living in

Eagan, Minnesota Eagan ( ) is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, Dakota County, Minnesota. It is south of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Saint Paul and lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River. Eagan and the ...

, for nearly 10 years. She and her wife, Cheryl Greene, have four children.

References

External links

Congresswoman Angie Craig
official U.S. House website
Campaign website
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Angie 1972 births 21st-century American politicians Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota Female members of the United States House of Representatives Lesbian politicians LGBT Lutherans LGBT members of the United States Congress LGBT people from Arkansas LGBT people from Minnesota Living people People from West Helena, Arkansas University of Memphis alumni 21st-century American women politicians People from Eagan, Minnesota 21st-century LGBT people