The Aug. 11 Democratic Senate primary between Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has been a hotly contested race since the two candidates announced within a few days of each other after Sen. Tina Smith announced her retirement in Spring of 2025.
In the closing days of the campaign, Jewfolk editor-in-chief Lonny Goldsmith spoke with Craig on Aug. 2, in a 15-minute conversation that was largely focused on the congresswoman’s stance on Israel and Gaza and the recent vote against the Massie Amendment, and time for one question on the economic needs of Minnesotans. The full conversation is below, with light editing for grammar.
A request for an in-person interview with a similar set of questions was made to the Flanagan campaign, which did not respond.
TC Jewfolk: Most recently in the news was the Massie Amendment. You were one of the no votes for that. You were the only Minnesota Democrat who voted no. Why did you take that vote, and was it an easy vote for you to take?
Rep. Angie Craig: I mean, it was an overly broad amendment that was introduced by Republican Mr. Massie. You know, I would note that Betty McCollum and Kelly Morrison voted present. I didn’t think it was a perfect amendment by any account, but, you know, I’ve never voted present ever, and so the idea that we’re going to make such big foreign policy decisions about funding of Israel in an amendment to an appropriations process didn’t make sense to me. And at the end of the day, the amendment would have also eliminated any assistance to the Palestinians living in Gaza. It was a bad bill. And most of my Democratic colleagues who voted yes even said this is a terrible bill, but they wanted to send a message to the Netanyahu government. And look, I can vote no and still send a message through my words to the Netanyahu government that my own belief is that too many civilians were killed in the Israel-Hamas war. My own view is that the Israeli government and the Netanyahu government didn’t work hard enough to get some humanitarian assistance, but I also recognize Israel’s right to exist, and so you know it’s certainly a complicated foreign policy issue. But, you know, I can agree that Israel has a right to exist and disagree with the government of Israel. That’s what I do with the Trump administration every single day. So I saw it as more nuanced, and it was just a bad amendment.
TCJ: And I found it interesting: your opponent in this race, the lieutenant governor, said she would have voted for it, and you mentioned Congresswoman McCollum, who has long been a fairly reliable vote against aid to Israel that may have anything to do militarily with supporting the Israeli government.
AC: That amendment was so bad, even Betty McCollum voted present.
TCJ: That’s where I was going.
AC: That’s exactly my point. Betty voted present? That just tells you how bad that amendment really is.
TCJ: How do you view the balance between maintaining the U.S.-Israel alliance, which I think is important as one of the lone democracies in the region, and also addressing the humanitarian crisis and the civilian casualties that are taking place in Gaza?
AC: I believe that the U.S. and Israel do have to have a strong relationship as the only democracy in the Middle East. I also would like to see normalization of relations throughout the Middle East. I think that is how we encourage peace in the region is to help encourage them to be much more economically dependent upon one another. I mean, my own sense is that the Abraham Accords are one of the reasons why Hamas decided at this moment, on October 7, 2023, to attack Israel is because they were upset about further normalization of relations. And at the same time, you know, I can objectively look at what happened in Gaza with the number of civilian deaths in the humanitarian situation and in the West Bank, where my own view is that settler violence is out of control, and the Israeli government and military have not actively discouraged it. So I can be critical of the government of Israel and also very committed to the idea that the only way we actually get to peace in the Middle East if is that if Palestinians have their own state, not led by Hamas, not led by terrorists, and the Israelis are allowed to live in peace without being threatened by you know Hamas, by Hezbollah, by the Houthis, living in the kind of environment where you literally rely on an Iron Dome to keep you safe. The Middle East is complicated, but as much as it’s complicated, Palestinians want to live in peace, and they want self-determination and an opportunity to build their lives, and so do the Israeli people.
TCJ: This doesn’t feel like a particularly weak limb that you’re going out on. My own observations of what’s gone on in Israel from being there and before and after October 7, was that this is not a minority viewpoint. There’s a reason hundreds of thousands of Israelis were protesting Netanyahu and his judicial reforms for six or seven months before October 7.
AC: Sure. I mean, I was actively protesting his judicial reforms. Look, I mean, for the U.S.-Israel relationship, the best thing that can happen is for Benjamin Netanyahu to lose his election this fall. I believe that, with a new prime minister, you can reset – potentially – this relationship. But I do think that the international community has got to come together to help rebuild Gaza. And, again, Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative coalition have moved away from a two-state solution, and I think we have to bring the conversation back there.
TCJ: This is obviously an issue that has driven significant passion on the Democratic side of the aisle. How do you think that elected officials can manage the competing passions and divisions that are occurring, which we’re seeing within the Democratic Party and within their own constituencies regarding the conflict, without vilifying those who hold opposing views?
AC: I start out conversations with voters by saying, “Look, if you agree that Israel has the right to exist and to defend itself, then you know that’s a common ground we can start from. And now let’s have a conversation about the best policies toward peace in the Middle East.” And so starting from that baseline, I think, is very important. I think within the process of running, attending the DFL conventions, I think we have to point out when anti-action or anti-policy by the government of Israel turns into antisemitism, and anti-Jewish Americans or Jewish people, and I’ve observed too many situations where maybe that line has been crossed.
TCJ: I think that’s obviously where a lot of the Jewish community that we cover is really concerned about what’s happening within the Democratic Party, because there are these sort of fault lines have been exposed. I mean, I think these fault lines have always been there.
AC: I think as a leader in the Democratic Party, I have a responsibility to call out Islamophobia when I see it, and I have a responsibility to call out antisemitism when I see it in my own party. And I would also say that antisemitism is on the rise, the violence against Jewish Americans is on the rise, and, you know, it is incredibly troubling. And I think we have to have the ability to sit down and have these nuanced conversations about the Palestinian people again, who want to live with peace and self-determination. I think Palestinians have that right, but also that Jewish-Americans care deeply about the United States-Israel relationship. I have had the opportunity to talk to a number of individuals in the community here in Minnesota who are increasingly facing violence and threats because they are Jewish, and you know I’m certain that folks also who are involved in this effort, Palestinians, have also faced the same.
TCJ: You also can speak to it a place of real experience with your wife being Jewish. You raised a mixed-faith family, so you see it from not just talking to constituents or potential constituents who experience it; this is in your own home.
AC: My wife’s great-grandparents were from Poland. He was a rabbi and immigrated to the UK before the war. They were the only two surviving members of her family. I believe that Palestinians have that right, but I also know that throughout the history of the world, Jews have been targeted. I don’t have to agree with the government of Israel, but I do believe that the state of Israel has the right to exist.
TCJ: Why does that become such a controversial statement among some people?
AC: I don’t answer for some people.
TCJ: Fair enough.
AC: But I believe this level of nuance is where we have to bring the conversation, and I know passions are intense. During the war in Gaza, there was no [elected leader] who wanted that war to end and peace to take hold, and Hamas to put down its arms, and those hostages to come home more than me. So that Palestinians in Gaza could stop suffering, and so that the families in Israel who had lost their loved ones could begin to have some peace and some healing. I’ll share this with you. My wife is in D.C. with me when we’re in session weeks now, and she said to me recently, actually for the first time in her life, she feels more threatened by walking down the street wearing her Star of David [and] outwardly presenting as Jewish, than holding my hand as a member of the LGBTQ community. I have that family perspective, but I also have a significant level of empathy for the fact that so many lives were lost in Gaza. So how do we get, how do we encourage, how do we build the kind of foreign policy environment where we really could have peace in the Middle East?
TCJ: What do you see as the significant economic challenge that Minnesota families are facing, and is there a specific policy that you think is most needed to address that?
AC: There’s such an extensive list: It’s housing or rent; it’s health care; it’s the cost of groceries because of the tariffs, and now exacerbated by the war in Iran; it’s childcare. I have policy solutions for every single one of these, right? Let’s triple the child tax credit so that people can afford to send their kids to daycare and take care of their children. From a health care perspective, let’s move to the next big idea, which is a Medicare for all who want it public option in our country. Let’s give health insurance companies some competition. I spent 22 years working in health care, and I had to run a health care plan. And so, the cost of specialty drugs and compound drugs are out of control in this country. The patent life of these drugs is too long and too easy to extend. So, you know, moving right along, I’m the [Ranking Member] of the [Agriculture] Committee for the entire House side of Congress, and you know the tariffs have been detrimental to family farmers, but they’ve also been detrimental to working families who, have seen a consistent increase in the cost of just buying their everyday groceries.
TCJ: Your district goes from suburbs to farms very quickly.
AC: Forty percent of my district is covered in corn and soybeans right now.
TCJ: So your constituency is that statement of both family farmer and the consumer that’s trying to buy groceries.
AC: That’s right. So I think it’s that unique experience. And add on top of that, I grew up in a mobile home park. I was raised by a single mom. There were times when we needed access to then-food stamps, when we didn’t have health insurance in our own family, and that life experience shapes who I am every single day as a member of Congress, and will shape who I am as a U.S. senator. Put on top of that, the fight for my own family’s right to have the right to legally be a family through marriage equality, the fight to adopt my own son in Tennessee all those years ago, because a judge in a community didn’t think it was the right thing for a boy to be raised by two moms. Hey look at us now: We raised four of those boys, and they’re just tremendous young men.