Voters are increasingly saying they are fed up with the Trump administration. Vice President JD Vance wants them to know he gets it. In recent weeks, the vice president has attempted to campaign as a voice of patience and even empathy as the White House grapples with the possibility of losing control of the House and Senate.
Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber and his DFL challenger, Trina Swanson, made their pitch to voters in the Eighth Congressional District during a televised debate on WDIO-TV last night.
The two debated mining in the Boundary Waters, data centers and affordability during the hour-long livestreamed debate. Swanson worked for the Department of Homeland Security before quitting her job in 2025 when she said the Trump administration asked her to carry out actions she found to be unethical. Stauber, who has represented the district since 2018, has become a loyal Trump supporter. The district, spanning roughly 30,000 square miles in northeastern Minnesota, voted for Trump by 14 points in 2024, but anything goes in a midterm election. You can
watch the full debate here.
And there are more congressional debates coming up later this week.In southern Minnesota, First District GOP congressman Brad Finstad and DFL challenger Jake Johnson will debate Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the KEYC-TV studios in North Mankato. The forum will be broadcast and streamed on KEYC and KTTC in Rochester. And on Friday, we have our own debate with the candidates in Minnesota’s only open congressional seat, the Second District covering the southern suburbs and stretching down into farm country. DFLer
Matt Little and Republican Eric Pratt will debate on Politics Friday at noon, hosted by Catharine Richert this week.
An open state Senate seat in Rochester is coveted by both parties. As Catharine reports, Democrats want to flip the seat
after more than a decade of GOP representation, and it’s among races that could tip party control at the Legislature, with both chambers closely divided. On the right is well-known former state Rep. Nels Pierson and on the left is teacher and political newcomer Simon Glaser. Rochester was once reliably red, but has become markedly bluer in recent years as the city grows under Mayo Clinic’s expansion. Just outside city limits, Senate District 24 gets very red, making it a race where Republicans are also focusing their resources.
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The powerhouse political fund associated with U.S. Senate Republicans is airing TV ads in Minnesota … for a hot race in Iowa. The Senate Leadership Fund has been buying time for weeks on Rochester TV stations to back up GOP nominee Ashley Hinson in her close race with Democrat Josh Turek for an open seat there. Rochester TV broadcasts stretch into northern Iowa. Records with KTTC show two upcoming spots will air on “Sunday Night Football” at a cost of $15,000. Someone with “Sunday Night Football” ties, former sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, is hoping outside groups come to her aid in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race in the closing weeks of the campaign. As ofyesterday, there were no ad buys on file.
The Minnesota Office of Legislative Auditor says the state public defender board needs to increase staffing and update its caseload standards. The OLA report, released Tuesday,
found that the Minnesota Board of Public Defense has “not adequately managed public defender workloads or addressed ongoing management and oversight concerns.” The board oversees the state’s public defender system – the attorneys that provide constitutionally mandated legal counsel for those who cannot afford an attorney. The new report says the board has not updated caseload standards in more than three decades. Auditors also found that the board has increased staffing, but is still not at the staffing levels needed to meet standards. Further, the OLA found that managers are burdened with heavy caseloads, which cut into their supervisory work. In response, the board said it would look
to implement some of the recommendations, but also says some of those changes would require resources that the board does not have.
U.S. Rep. Angie Craig says she’s not sure what her next chapter will be after her term concludes later this year but she’s keeping her options open. The former DFL candidate for U.S. Senate told Star Tribune reporter Sydney Kashiwagi that she has no regrets
about her ultimately unsuccessful bid for an open Senate seat. And she’s working to finish out key priorities like a federal immigration law overhaul, delay of the intoxicating hemp ban and assistance for Minnesotans and farmers hit by federal nutrition assistance cuts. Overall, Craig looked back fondly on her time in Congress and said she’d tried to work across the political aisle to serve her politically purple district. She didn’t write out the possibility of running for another elected office in the future. But she did say there’s one post she’s keeping an eye on. “If the WNBA called, that’s the one job my wife would say, ‘Take the call,’ at this moment in time. WNBA commissioner
is every middle-aged lesbian’s dream job,” Craig said.
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