- Rep. Angie Craig is running against Republican Tyler Kistner in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District.
- The 2nd District is located south of the Twin Cities.
Second-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig faces off against Republican Tyler Kistner.
Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District candidates
Craig is a member of House committees on Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Small Business. She is the state's first openly gay member of Congress, and she co-chairs the LGBTQ Equality Caucus. She's also a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of centrists who are pro-business and fiscally moderate or conservative.
She is a former newspaper reporter and former medical device executive.
Kistner served nine years on active duty in the Marine Corps before transitioning to the reserves. He describes himself as a small business owner and consultant on his LinkedIn profile.
Republican and Democratic House campaign arms have both targeted the race as a priority.
Voting history for Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District
Minnesota's 2nd District includes rural and suburban counties south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
The district backed President Joe Biden by nearly 7 percentage points under its previous boundaries in 2020 and former President Donald Trump by 1.2 percentage points in 2016, Daily Kos data shows.
The district was redrawn by a panel appointed by the Minnesota Supreme Court. The new map is "nearly identical in competitiveness" to the old one, and Craig's district is still considered highly competitive, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Craig flipped the seat from red to blue in 2018 after a rematch campaign against former Republican Rep. Jason Lewis. She defeated Kistner, her current opponent, in 2020 by about 2 percentage points.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Craig has raised $7.2 million, spent $6.5 million, and has $1.8 million on hand, as of October 19. Her opponent, Kistner, has raised $3.1 million, spent $2.7 million, and has $419,710 left to spend, as of October 19.
Super PACs, national party committees, and other non-candidate groups have together spent almost $18 million as of November 3 to advocate for or against the two candidates. The pro-Republican super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund led all spenders through mid-October.
What experts say
The race between Craig and Kistner is rated as a "toss up" by Inside Elections, a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report and a "toss-up" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.