Angie Craig

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.

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.

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.[20][21][17][22][23]

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 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

• Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus (Co-Chair)[27]
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• New Democrat Coalition[28]