MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — U.S. Rep. Angie Craig on Tuesday became the latest Minnesota Democrat to enter the increasingly competitive race for a U.S. Senate seat currently held by the retiring Sen. Tina Smith.
In her launch video, Craig vows to “break through the chaos” and fight back against “a president trampling our rights and freedoms as he profits for personal gain, and a cowardly Republican Party rolling over and letting it all happen.”
The 53-year-old entered the Senate race after holding town hall meetings last week in all four congressional districts held by Minnesota Republicans, including Majority Whip Tom Emmer, to highlight the differences between Democrats and President Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress.
Smith, a Democrat, announced in February that she would not run again, setting off a scramble in her party for what will be an open seat that could help determine which party controls the Senate after 2026.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was first out of the gate and has been actively campaigning across the state. She has already piled up a long list of endorsements, including from Attorney General Keith Ellison, former U.S. Sen. Al Franken and several legislators. She raised over $450,000 in the first quarter.
Former state Sen Melisa López Franzen joined the race in March and is also making appearances statewide. López Franzen has endorsements from several current and former legislators and local officials. She raised more than $260,000 in her first three weeks.
But Craig is in the strongest financial position. Her House campaign raised over $1.2 million in the first quarter, and she can now spend that on the Senate race.
Craig is a former medical device company executive and former newspaper reporter. Craig and her wife, Cheryl, have four adult sons. Craig was targeted with death threats and forced to move after fighting off a mentally disturbed attacker in the elevator of her Washington apartment building in 2023.
She has represented the suburban-to-rural 2nd District south of Minneapolis and St. Paul since unseating Republican Jason Lewis in the 2018 election. While her territory was once considered a swing district, it has trended Democratic in recent years. Running as a centrist, she won reelection by a 13-point margin in 2024. But that district could conceivably become competitive again with her out.
Republicans actively raising money in the Senate race include antiestablishment grassroots candidate Royce White, a former NBA player who lost to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2024, and former congressional candidate Adam Schwarze, a veteran of the Marine Corps and the Iraq War.
FILE - Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on June 24, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump's administration cannot block federal money for child care subsidies and other programs aimed at supporting needy children and their families from flowing to five Democratic-led states for now.
The states of California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York argued that a policy announced Tuesday to freeze funds for three grant programs is having an immediate impact on them and creating “operational chaos.” In court filings and a hearing earlier Friday, the states contended that the government did not have a legal reason for holding back the money from them.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was pausing the funding because it had “reason to believe” the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally, though it did not provide evidence or explain why it was targeting those states and not others.
The programs are the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes child care for children from low-income families; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance and job training; and the Social Services Block Grant, a smaller fund that provides money for a variety of programs.
The five states say they receive a total of more than $10 billion a year from the programs.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who was nominated to the bench by former President Joe Biden, did not rule on the legality of the funding freeze, but he said the five states had met a legal threshold “to protect the status quo” for at least 14 days while arguments are made in court.
Health department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the court order.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.”
The government had requested reams of data from the five states, including the names and Social Security numbers of everyone who received benefits from some of the programs since 2022.
The states argue that the effort is unconstitutional and is intended to go after Trump’s political adversaries rather than to stamp out fraud in government programs — something the states say they already do.
Jessica Ranucci, a lawyer in James' office, said during the Friday hearing, which was conducted by telephone, that at least four of the states had already had money delayed after requesting it. She said that if the states can’t get child care funds, there will be immediate uncertainty for providers and families who rely on the programs.
A lawyer for the federal government, Kamika Shaw, said it was her understanding that the money had not stopped flowing to states.
Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum contributed from Salt Lake City.
FILE = The Health and Human Services seal is seen before the news conference of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
