WASHINGTON – The Democrats battling for Rep. Angie Craig’s congressional seat are locked in a last-minute scramble for delegates – but it’s not certain any of them will win the coveted DFL endorsement.
State Sen. Matt Klein, former state Sen. Matt Little and state Rep. Kaela Berg are all wooing the 186 DFLers who will gather in an auditorium in Burnsville High School on May 9 to determine their favored candidate.
Craig is vacating her House seat because she is running for U.S. Senate, and that set off a hot race among DFLers who have experience representing parts of that district in the state Legislature.
But since at least 60% of the votes are needed to win their party’s endorsement, all three Democrats may walk away empty handed.
And if there’s no endorsed candidate, it is probable that all three will continue to battle each other for a chance to win August’s DFL primary. That means a long summer of heated — and costly — campaigning is likely ahead.
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Little, however, is confident he’ll take home the prized endorsement. He says he has commitments from 56% of the delegates and party officials who will cast their ballots at the district convention and accuses rivals Klein and Berg of colluding to thwart his efforts to reach the threshold of 60% support.
“Matt Little has a loose relationship with the truth,” said Ava Wampold, Berg’s campaign spokeswoman.
Wampold also said Little’s delegate count “is unfounded and dishonest” and that Berg’s campaign is confident that she will win the endorsement.
Klein’s campaign also said it doubted Little’s delegate count.
Yet Little won the DFL’s 2nd District precinct caucus straw poll in February and his time as Lakeville mayor and a term in the state Senate has given him name recognition in the state, said Dan Hofrenning, a political science professor at St. Olaf College.
Democrats likely, but not certain, to win
The 2nd Congressional District includes the south Twin Cities metro area and runs south nearly to Mankato, encompassing all of Scott, Dakota and Le Sueur counties as well as parts of Rice and Washington counties.
Craig, who positioned herself as a moderate Democrat in the U.S. House, has represented that district since 2019. But, for nearly 20 years before that, the district was represented by Republican lawmakers.
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Demographics, and Craig’s determination to keep the seat in her party’s column by crossing the line and supporting GOP initiatives from time to time, has turned a “purple district” into one that leans Democratic.
In midterm elections, the party out of power in the White House is usually favored, giving Democrats a likely historical lift in November.
President Donald Trump’s falling approval ratings, the unpopularity of the war with Iran and persistent inflation are also issues expected to help Democrats, who may wrest control of the U.S. House from the GOP in the midterms.
Yet a Democratic win in the 2nd District, while likely, is not assured.
Hofrenning said the 2nd District is a “bellwether” and the results of the race will show whether Democrats have a sweep election in November.
Republicans seeking the seat include state Sen. Eric Pratt of Prior Lake and, until recently, Tyler Kistner. Kistner — who has run against and lost to Craig — left the race after the Marine Reserves activated him earlier this month for deployment to the Middle East.
Kistner’s departure prompted another Republican candidate to enter the race, business owner Jeremy Westby, who was running in the neighboring 3rd District and switched over to enter the 2nd District race.
But the real contest right now is among the Democrats who want Craig’s seat.
Following Craig’s playbook
Klein, 58, is a Mayo Clinic doctor who said he served his last shift at the hospital on Feb. 1 so he could campaign.
He is the most moderate of the Democratic candidates running for Craig’s seat and considers himself a “Blue Dog” in reference to a group of conservative and moderate Democrats whose numbers have rapidly shrunk in Congress.
Klein said he is running, like most other Democrats, on the issue of “affordability,” especially when it comes to health care.
He said his biggest accomplishments in the state Senate are pushing through legislation that “kicked payday lenders out of the state” and his efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable.
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He said he would campaign for the 2nd District seat, and represent it, like Craig, who sought bipartisanship when possible. “She wrote a playbook and I’m trying to follow it,” he said.
His campaign said Klein will keep running for Craig’s seat even if another Democrat wins the party’s endorsement. “We are going to the (August) primary,” said campaign spokesman Dominic Ciresi.
Klein said his 35 years as a doctor is a “political asset.”
“Doctors are adept at building relationships of trust with people of all different backgrounds,” he said.
He also said his life in medicine has given him “a deep understanding of health care delivery.”
Recently, Klein was scrutinized for placing a $50 bet on the predictive market Kalshi that he would win his race.
Klein said his friends told him there were bets on the Democratic contest in the 2nd District and he placed his wager out of curiosity. He said he was told in March that his bet was a violation of the platform’s rules, agreed to a 5-year suspension and paid a $540 fine.
Before learning of his violation, Klein had sponsored a bill to limit certain prediction market activity.
While he hopes the 2nd District will remain in Democratic control in midterms that favor his party, he said he cautions people against becoming “overconfident.”
“November is an eternity away,” Klein said.
He lives with his wife Kris in Mendota Heights and has two adult sons.
In the clouds and the statehouse
Berg, 52, who considers herself a progressive Democrat, said experience as both a state legislator and a working flight attendant who has struggled financially gives her an edge in the race.
She said she lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Burnsville, had no health insurance during the pandemic, has had to buy groceries for her two sons from a dollar store and cut prescription medication in half to make it last longer.
An active union member, Berg has positioned herself as an alternative to the “multimillionaires” whom she says dominate Congress and can, because of her background, excel at promoting the Democratic proposals to bring down the cost of living.
“People are ready for a different type of candidate,” she said.
After three first responders were fatally shot in Burnsville in early 2024, Berg sponsored legislation in the state House that would increase the penalties for those who make “straw purchases,” or buy a gun for someone else who is not allowed under the law to own one. The gunman who killed the first responders obtained his weapon through a straw purchase.
Berg also sponsored legislation that banned “binary triggers,” which fire one round when a trigger is pulled and another round when the trigger is released.
A delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during the 2016 presidential election, Berg said, “I’m definitely a progressive.”
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But she also said the more moderate Craig was deft in the way she ran for re-election and cast votes in Congress. “She created a pathway for a more progressive candidate to take the seat,” Berg said.
She also said she would make a decision about continuing her campaign after the May 9 convention.
Berg has the backing of Emily’s List, a political action committee that helps elect Democratic female candidates who support abortion rights. That could help Berg’s campaign fundraising and provide experts in communications and in training and recruiting campaign staff.
While Little and Klein are both pro-abortion rights, Yari Aquino, who helps advise candidates for Emily’s list, said Berg “meets the moment that we are in.”
Fighting ICE on TikTok
Little, 41, an attorney who specializes in personal injury and malpractice cases, raised his profile during Operation Metro Surge.
He spent one or two days a week following federal immigration agents and posting some of those encounters on TikTok, including one of ICE agents converging at his home in New Market Township.
Another TikTok video featured Little’s wife, Coco, who said she had to carry her U.S. passport to the grocery store because the Trump administration “is targeting people like me.”
Confident that he will be favored at the DFL district convention, Little is asking his Democratic rivals to quit the race if he — or anyone else — wins the endorsement.
“I will abide by the DFL Party endorsement, and I call on all the candidates in the race to abide,” Little said. “We need a united party to win this seat and take control of the House in November.”
Little said he differs from the other Democrats running for the 2nd District seat by being “the strongest” on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the only candidate who has publicly called for an end of U.S. military help to Israel.
He also said that, during his single term in the state Senate, he represented “difficult” areas of the district for Democrats, including Lakeville and southern Dakota County, which would help him win a race against a Republican opponent.
As for why he’s running for Congress? Little said he wants his young daughter to know he was fighting “when everything was going wrong.”
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