OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Incumbent Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, who is running for her third term to represent the state’s Second Congressional District, appeared to have committed a major gaffe during a debate with Republican challenger and Marine Corps vet Tyler Kistner on Thursday.
At one point during the debate, Craig declared: “I will never stop standing up for Big Pharma and standing against my constituents!” What followed, according to a video clip posted online by the Republican National Committee, was stunned silence.
Democrat Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig: "I will never stop standing up for Big Pharma and standing against my constituents!" pic.twitter.com/TKxXhJsepf
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 13, 2022
The Daily Wire noted of the clip: “Video of the declaration went viral after the debate, and will no doubt become a Kistner campaign ad.”
The outlet added:
The race to represent the southern portion of the Twin Cities is a rematch of the 2020 election, which Craig won by 9,580 votes or just over 2 percentage points. But the district is now considered a tossup as Republicans appear poised to take over control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Polls show the two virtually deadlocked.
Incumbent Rep. Angie Craig (D) is in for a challenging reelection fight in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district. She faces Tyler Kistner (R), whom she narrowly beat in 2020. Watch our Minnesota 2022 midterms preview here: https://t.co/Hp9TwAthIz pic.twitter.com/ZIstqabbEe
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) October 11, 2022
Kistner is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who served four overseas tours. He has criticized Craig for previously calling for defunding of police departments. The candidates covered abortion, guns, and the economy at the debate, with Craig trying to tie Kistner to former President Trump.
“You’re pro-life, you’re pro-Trump and you’re pro-guns,” Craig said at one point. “Now, you get up here and you pretend to be the boy next door, but you are too extreme for Minnesota’s 2nd District.”
Meanwhile, Kistner responded by tying Craig squarely to President Joe Biden, who has presided over record inflation and now, dramatically rising interest rates and fuel costs — all of which are top election issues for the vast majority of Americans, according to numerous recent polls.
“Can you survive another two years of Joe Biden and Angie Craig’s leadership, or do you want the next two years to be a check and balance to these disastrous policies, and make sure it’s the beginning of a next two years where we’re back to the path to recovery and back to prosperity?” Kistner asked the audience at Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount.
And, according to the Daily Mail, brand-new polling shows generic Republicans leading generic Democrats by 5 points as the midterm elections are just a few weeks away:
Midterm voters are more likely to cast their ballot for a Republican candidate in some of the most competitive races, according to a new poll. Likely voters say that if the midterm elections were held today they would vote for Republicans over Democrats at a 48 percent to 43 percent margin in the most competitive congressional races, a new CNN/SSRS poll shows. Four Senate races are considered toss ups by the Cook Political Report – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Nevada.
Earlier this week, the CEO of a leading polling firm said he believes that Republican voters who have deeply withdrawn are going to be undercounted once more in the coming weeks ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms due to being demonized by leading Democrats and the media.
In the debut of The Daily Wire’s new weekly podcast, Election Wire, which will air every Sunday leading up to next month’s elections, Robert Cahaly, founder and senior strategist and pollster of Trafalgar Group signaled “with the upcoming election around the corner many Republican voters would be underestimated after legacy media talking heads and establishment politicians declared MAGA Republicans ‘enemies of the state,’” the outlet reported.
“These submerged voters aren’t answering polls, they aren’t putting stickers on their cars, or signs in their yard — they’re not even posting on social media,” Cahaly told the podcast. “They are underwater. They’re not saying a word to anybody until election day.”
He went on to say that voters should basically ignore polling in the weeks leading up to the elections, especially after most polling firms failed to accurately predict the last three election cycles, pumping up Democrats and undercounting Republicans.
He also said that voters shouldn’t trust polls in the coming weeks, considering many pollsters failed to accurately predict the last three elections by highly favoring Democrats and undercounting Republicans.
