In a Minnesota Public Radio broadcast debate Friday ahead of the election for one of the state’s most hotly contested congressional seats, Rep. Angie Craig and her Republican challenger Joe Teirab squared off on the economy, abortion rights and immigration.

Craig, a Democrat seeking a fourth two-year term representing the state’s Second Congressional District, touted her bipartisan record and support from law enforcement and painted her opponent as an “anti-abortion activist” who wants to raise the Social Security retirement age — something Teirab denied.

Craig emphasized her past splits from fellow Democrats and her work with Minnesota Republican House members.

“Where I’ve broken with my own party has been around law enforcement issues, it’s been around border security, and it’s been on behalf of our family farmers,” she said. “I’ve proven already that I will be an independent voice.”

Meanwhile, Teirab tried to tie Craig to rising prices of housing and groceries because she supported government spending bills signed into law by President Joe Biden.

Framing himself as a “middle-class guy” attuned to the struggles of working families, Teirab accused Craig of throwing “gas on the inflation fire” by backing Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, infrastructure bill and big pandemic-era spending packages, some of which were signed into law by former president Donald Trump.

“Middle-class families are struggling and crushed under the weight of inflation,” he said. “Angie Craig stands for the status quo in the economy. We can go a different direction.”

The candidates are vying for a U.S. Congress seat representing the south metro suburbs and rural areas extending to the Wisconsin border in the east, and southwest to around St. Peter and Mankato. Of the eight U.S. House races in Minnesota, it’s typically the most closely watched and competitive.

Craig first was elected in 2018, ousting one-term GOP incumbent Jason Lewis. Teirab is a former federal prosecutor who served in the Marines and is the son of a Sudanese immigrant.

Abortion

With the end of federal protections for abortion, the issue has been front and center in suburban congressional races like Minnesota’s Second District.

During the debate, Craig noted Teirab’s ties to the anti-abortion movement, including his membership on the board of a crisis pregnancy center that Teirab says persuaded his mother to not have an abortion when she was pregnant with him.

Pressed on his views, Teirab echoed a line many Republicans have taken on abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022: There shouldn’t be a federal ban.

“This is not a federal issue, this is a state issue,” he said.

Craig questioned that stance.

“If you’re in Congress and you won’t stand up and say: ‘No way, I’m not going to stand by when a state forces a rape survivor to carry a child with no choice for 40 weeks, and have that child,’ you don’t belong in Congress,” she said.

Immigration

Republican challenger Joe Teirab gives his opening remarks during a debate with U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, DFL-Minn., as the two Minnesota Second Congressional District candidates face off at MPR News in St. Paul on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The candidates also clashed on border policy during the debate. Teirab accused Craig of not taking a sufficiently hard line on immigration because she didn’t support a Republican bill that would have boosted border patrol funding and funded the construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Craig noted she has parted with fellow Democrats in the past by supporting GOP immigration and law enforcement bills, including a limit on the number of asylum seekers allowed to enter the U.S. She also said she joined the GOP in condemning Biden for his handling of illegal immigration.

Social Security

Minnesota 2nd congressional district incumbent U.S. Rep. Angie Craig makes a point during a debate between her and Republican nominee Joe Teirab at the MPR Kling Public Media Center in downtown St. Paul on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Craig pushed on Teirab about saying in February that he’d consider privatizing Social Security and possibly raising the retirement age. Teirab has distanced himself from those comments, claiming he wasn’t expressing any serious policy preference and wouldn’t want to cut benefits for his parents, who live on fixed incomes.

Both Craig and Teirab said people shouldn’t have to pay income taxes on Social Security checks after a particular income threshold. Craig has a bill to create new cutoffs, something Teirab said he could support as a “common sense” solution.

2020 election

Moderator Brian Bakst, politics editor at MPR, asked Teirab if he believed the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“It was fair. It was unambiguous. Joe Biden was elected as president,” said Teirab, who was involved in the prosecution of Jan. 6 rioter Brian Mock.

Asked if he would support a pardon for Mock, as Trump suggested he might do for Capitol rioters, Teirab said it wouldn’t be appropriate.

“I was proud to be part of the effort to ensure that we’re actually holding those types of people accountable, and so that’s what I’m going to stand by,” he said.

Asked if there was any reason she might not certify the results of the 2024 presidential election, Craig said she believed in the “integrity of America’s elections.”

The race

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, DFL, right and Republican challenger Joe Teirab shake hands following a debate between the Minnesota Second Congressional District candidates at MPR News in St. Paul on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Minnesota’s Second Congressional District is often one of the most expensive races in the state, and recent elections have seen accusations of either side backing “spoiler” candidates to take votes away from the two mainstream party nominees.

The hour-long debate on Minnesota Public Radio on Friday afternoon was the second time the candidates have met, after their first appearance in August at Minnesota Farmfest — whose candidate forums are a key early stop in state elections. They’re set to meet again Monday at a local chamber of commerce debate in Hastings.

Election Day is Nov. 5. Early voting already is underway.

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