Republicans in Minnesota's Second Congressional District have delayed a decision to potentially endorse GOP candidate Joe Teirab who is challenging DFL Rep. Angie Craig in November's Election.
They were set to decide whether to back him but instead voted Tuesday night to remove the endorsement consideration from their agenda. Teirab tells Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News he's always intended to move forward with or without their endorsement.
"Before the, you know, endorsement convention, we went ahead and told folks, 'hey look, we're gonna go through the primary'. We want to let the grassroots supporters across the district, the over 20,000 voters who did come out, have their voice heard," Teirab explained.
The Republican party originally endorsed Tayler Rahmm, but he suspended his campaign in July to work as former President Trump’s senior adviser in Minnesota. Teirab won the GOP primary two weeks ago, but did so without the backing of his local Republican party.
Teirab said he will not be deterred by any decision.
"Republicans already voted to support our campaign when we won by 52% in the primary a couple weeks ago," he says. "And so, I'm really proud of the effort our team put together, grassroots supporters, door-knocking. I door-knocked 1,000 doors myself. It was really proud of our effort and we're gonna get the message out there."
Teirab cannot receive resources from the second district party without their backing, but the state party can still help Teirab due to his primary win. The national party would also provide plenty for Teirab to run a full campaign against Craig, which is likely Minnesotan's only Congressional swing district.
Some Rahm supporters have been reluctant or have refused to back Teirab because he didn’t follow through on his pledge to drop out of the race if he did not get the party’s endorsement.
"This is an illustration of the dynamics within the Republican Party right now," says WCCO political analyst Blois Olson. "You can have somebody who has national support, has state support, has raised a lot of money in a highly competitive, top ten national seat, and local Republicans aren't sure if he's conservative enough. Or MAGA enough for them."
Olson says these are the issues that can trip up parties and cost them races.
"Republicans, let's face it, they need a win in Minnesota this year," Olson says. "They've had a really dry stretch and Joe Teirab is one of those races they were hoping to win. There's still a really good chance, but these kind of reindeer games at the local level just don't make it helpful."
Craig was challenged in 2022 by Republican Tyler Kistner who was expected to make it a tight race. Instead, Craig cruised to a relatively easy victory 50.9% to 45.6%. Craig has held the seat since 2018 after losing a tight race to Republican Jason Lewis in 2016. Prior to Craig, it was solidly a red district with John Kline holding the seat in Congress.