WASHINGTON – An open seat for Congress usually results in an expensive, combative and high-profile contest to fill it.
But the race for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District seat, which is up for grabs with the retirement of Rep. Angie Craig, has been muted, overshadowed by the race for an open U.S. Senate seat and governor’s office.
It’s a quiet contest between Main Street Republican state Sen. Eric Pratt, 62, who has kept his distance from President Donald Trump, and progressive Democrat Matt Little, 41, who is eager to change federal policy on a number of issues, including health care and Trump’s tax breaks to corporations and the very wealthy.
Just two years ago, when Craig was running for reelection, more than $11 million was spent by the lawmaker and her Republican opponent, Joe Teirab.
Millions of additional dollars were spent by the national Democratic and Republican parties and other groups in a bitterly heated contest for what was considered a swing seat.
But you won’t see any TV ads from either Little or Pratt’s campaigns. Those candidates have spent a comparatively modest amount, a total of about $1.5 million, to win Craig’s seat. Also, outside spending has been modest and limited mostly to billboards, phone banks, canvassing and digital ads.
“The quietness of the race is a reflection of how uncompetitive the district has become for Republicans,” said Tim Lindberg, professor of political science at the University of Minnesota Morris.
Much of that change occurred in swaths of suburbs in the district, which have been trending Democratic and are now much more so because of Operation Metro Surge “and the rhetoric Trump has used in calling out the state,” Lindberg said.
There’s another difference in the race to represent a district that includes southern Twin Cities suburbs and exurbs as well as several rural communities.
Two years ago, the Democrat running for the seat, Craig, was a moderate who touted her occasional votes for GOP legislation in an effort to broaden her appeal in a “purple” district. But Little, the former mayor of Lakeville, is an unabashed progressive.
He is an energetic enthusiast of key progressive issues, including the promotion of a government-run health care system known as Medicare for All and the placement of strict guardrails on immigration enforcement agents.
“We’ll soon find out if what I’m saying and doing works,” he said.
Lindberg said it may not mean much that Little is not following Craig’s successful playbook.
“I think we are getting to a point now where people are voting for their party and not on the basis of how progressive or conservative that candidate can be,” he said.
And Erin Covey of the Cook Political Report said “Matt Little is in a strong position to win the 2nd District — even in a tough political environment for Democrats.”
That “tough political environment” is the relentless blaming of Democrats for fraud in social service programs in the state, especially focused on Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is running for reelection, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is running for U.S. Senate.
“(Kamala) Harris won this district by six points” in her run for president, Covey said. “Even if the blue wave is more of a ripple in Minnesota due to the state specific issue, this is a seat that clearly favors Democrats.”
Ironically, it is Pratt who is following Craig’s footsteps when it comes to running as a centrist and trying to bring people together, Lindberg said.
A former vice president of U.S. Bank, Pratt’s focus on tax and spending issues is reflective of traditional Republican policy.
Unlike other Republicans, Pratt has stayed out of the culture wars and is proud that legislation he pushed through the Legislature had bipartisan support.
And when Trump first ran for president in 2016, Pratt said, “I wish someone else was the head of my party.”
A resident of Prior Lake, Pratt has focused on affordability. “The district’s residents are feeling the stress of rising prices,” he said.
But like other Republicans, Pratt blames inflation and rising costs on Democrats. “We saw $4.70 a gallon gas in 2022,” Pratt said.
That’s true; gasoline prices did reach that level that year while Joe Biden was president. But the U.S. national annual average for regular-grade gasoline was about $3.95 per gallon that year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Pratt has called himself a “finance guy” and “numbers nerd.” He was first elected to his Senate district in 2012.
Pratt was reelected in 2016, 2020 and 2022 and is well-known in much of the 2nd District, which includes the southern 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.
While Pratt’s name recognition is an advantage, Trump’s unpopularity and an energized Democratic base are disadvantages for the GOP candidate. His team seems to be well aware of that.
Someone in his campaign temporarily left an AI prompt on the Pratt for Minnesota website that said, “The President is not popular, so all messaging should be on local wants and needs.”
Besides focusing on local concerns, Pratt has distanced himself from the president on several issues, including Trump’s global tariff policy.
“Tariffs have their limited place,” Pratt said. “They should not be used as broadly as they are today.”
He cited the use of tariffs to dissuade China from dumping cheap steel and hurting Minnesota’s iron ore industry as a good use of the levies. “But they shouldn’t be used to balance the federal deficit,” Pratt said.
He also said Congress should become a better check on Trump’s executive power.
“We need a Congress to reassert itself as a coequal branch of government,” Pratt said.
Little decisively won a hard-fought primary against two Democratic rivals – state Rep. Kaela Berg and state Sen. Matt Klein, with the help of public outcry over Operation Metro Surge.
An attorney who specializes in personal injury and malpractice cases, Little one or two days a week followed federal immigration agents during that effort to mass deport undocumented Minnesota immigrants.
He raised his profile by posting some of those encounters on TikTok, including one of ICE agents converging at his home in New Market Township.
Little won the support of a growing number of Minnesotans who were galvanized by the operation and expanded the Democratic base in the state, especially its progressive wing.
Little said he decided to run for Congress after Craig announced she would leave the seat to run for Senate because he wanted to show his daughter “we can push back” on Trump administration policies.
Then the reason for his campaign shifted to “making sure Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are held accountable.”
The race has given voters a clear choice when it comes to key issues.
While Little is a strong backer of “Medicare for All,” Pratt has denounced that proposal.
He said proponents base the plan’s cost savings “on the most optimistic assumptions that are out there” and that the proposal would cost the government much more money to implement. He also said it would result in poorer care and result in a “likely limited choice” of providers.
The candidates have also sparred over Social Security. The Social Security Trust Fund, which pays out benefits, is projected to begin to suffer a shortfall in 2032.
Little’s solution is to eliminate the cap on taxing income to fund the program. Currently, the Social Security tax is not levied when an annual income reaches $184,500.
Little says the very wealthy, including billionaires, should continue to pay into the system “because they’ve made all their money because of the opportunity this country affords.”
Pratt, meanwhile, said the solution is to allow young workers to invest the money they would pay in Social Security taxes in a 401(k) or a similar private retirement account.
The Social Security tax is set at 6.2% of income for people who have an employer that also pays into the fund and 12.4% for self-employed individuals.
Pratt accuses Little of proposing “simple solutions for complex problems.”
Little said he’s energized and if elected to the next Congress, which may be under Democratic control, he will be eager to begin work on a progressive agenda, even if it would never be signed into law by Trump.
He’s counting on voters to elect a Democratic president in 2028.
“Everything we do has to be a three-year plan,” Little said.
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