Republican Joe Teirab (left) and Congresswoman Angie Craig sat down for their second and final debate this year at the Lakeville Area Arts Center on Oct. 7, 2024. Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer
Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Republican Joe Teirab wrapped up their second and final debate this election cycle on Monday morning in Lakeville, repeating many of the same talking points from their recent debate on Minnesota Public Radio.
In both debates, Teirab — a former state and federal prosecutor — attacked Craig for getting “swept up” in the “defund the police” movement shortly after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd.
His evidence? Her voting “yea” for the George Floyd Justice in Police Act of 2020 and 2021, which would have limited police officers’ qualified immunity — a legal doctrine that protects public workers from personal liability in civil suits for performing their duties — and banned chokeholds and no-knock warrants. After passing the House, the bill never passed the Senate.
Teirab on Tuesday said that he has a history of supporting law enforcement, noting his years of working with officers as a prosecutor. Craig, he argued, doesn’t.
“I would never have gotten swept up in the defund the police fervor like you did, Angie Craig, when you voted for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” Teirab said during the debate held by the Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce at the Lakeville Area Arts Center.
Craig visually scoffed at his attack.
“You can give me that look you gave me, but you voted for that bill. That would’ve knee-capped law enforcement,” Teirab said.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would not have defunded police.
Craig this year is endorsed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, the largest group representing law enforcement. Earlier this year, MPPOA Executive Director Brian Peters was Craig’s guest to the State of the Union address.
In 2021, Craig was the first member of Minnesota’s DFL congressional delegation to oppose the Minneapolis ballot initiative, which would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety and vested more power over the department in the City Council. It was viewed by some as a proxy for the defund movement, even though it would not have actually defunded the police.
Craig first gained the police group’s endorsement in 2022, and MPPOA said it was in part because of her public pushback against the effort to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.
“I am strongly opposed to the Minneapolis Ballot Initiative, which I believe would jeopardize public safety and diminish accountability. The … referendum is shortsighted, misguided and likely to harm the very communities that it seeks to protect,” Craig said in a statement at the time.
Craig, who is running for her fourth term to represent Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, earlier this year introduced legislation that would make it easier for police departments to obtain military-style vehicles despite research showing they don’t make police or communities safer.
She also introduced a resolution two years ago asking newly elected House members to participate in a ride-along so they could understand the challenges their local law enforcement officers face.
Craig was the victim of random crime last year. She was in the elevator of her Washington, D.C. apartment building when a man assaulted her, grabbing her neck and slamming her into the wall, according to court papers. She escaped mostly unharmed after defending herself with hot coffee. He was convicted of assault.
In 2022, Craig’s GOP challenger Tyler Kistner also criticized Craig for voting for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, arguing that the federal police reform package would have made it more difficult for cops to do their jobs. Kistner lost to Craig by about five percentage points.
On Tuesday, Craig hit back at Teirab’s critiques of her record on public safety.
“Joe, if you wanted to run against a defund the police Democrat, you should have moved to some other congressional district because that’s not me, and you know it,” Craig said.