In 2022, months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, I credited students at Carleton with keeping MN-02 a pro-choice district. You registered here, got out to the polls and helped us send a message loud and clear: we won’t let extremists take away our rights.
In just a few short days, Minnesotans will cast their votes for their elected representatives — from President and Vice President all the way to local officials. That includes a vote on who represents you in Congress.
Carleton sits in the heart of one of the most closely-watched congressional districts in the country — MN-02 is one of just 31 House districts that will determine which party controls Congress. Every single vote could make a difference, and as a Carleton student you can register to vote on Election Day at the UCC Church by the Weitz Center.
I believe in an America where every young person has equal opportunity to succeed, where students are free from the threat of gun violence, where our democracy can thrive and where every woman has the right to control her own body. My opponent, Joe Teirab, stands in the way of those ideals.
Joe Teirab is a life-long anti-abortion activist — and the most extreme pro-life opponent I’ve ever faced. Back in his college days at Cornell, he helped lead the student pro-life club and told his school’s newspaper that “the unborn have a right to life too, regardless of the conception.”
To this day, Joe is spending his free time leading a crisis pregnancy center right here in Minnesota that refuses to refer pregnant women for abortion care, promotes anti-science “abortion pill reversals” and believes marriage can only exist between “one man and one woman” — so they won’t facilitate adoptions to LGBTQ+ families like mine.
And on the campaign trail as a candidate for Congress, he said he wants to be “part of the solution that makes [abortion] go away.” Joe even pledged to Minnesota’s largest pro-life organization that he would vote to keep all state-level abortion bans in place if he’s elected — even bans without exceptions for rape, incest and life of the pregnant woman.
We’ve seen the consequences of those abortion bans in states like Georgia, Texas and our neighbors in the Dakotas – we can’t afford to elect someone who stands against women’s rights here in Minnesota.
If Joe is elected to Congress, he’ll be another vote against women’s rights, another vote against common sense gun safety laws, another vote against climate-smart policies and another vote for the Trump tax policies that gave breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.
My approach in Congress couldn’t be more different. I wrote the bill to crack down on the corporate greed that’s making life unaffordable for young people. I’ve pushed Republicans to let us vote on universal background checks for gun sales and an assault weapons ban. I’ve voted for the most significant climate change legislation in history. And I’ve pushed at every turn to codify Roe v. Wade and restore reproductive rights for every woman in America.
There is so much on the line this November, and by registering to vote in the Second District, Carleton students can help restore a pro-choice Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. You’ve got the power in your hands – I know because I’ve seen it firsthand, year after year.
Angie Craig is the current U.S. Representative for the Minn. 2nd congressional district.