Outside dark group drops ad Monday after Craig campaign asks for Super PACs to target DFL Convention and Caucusgoers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Democratic Lt. Governors Association today is calling out Angie Craig for orchestrating a dark money operation to lie about her record supporting ICE and trying to influence the DFL endorsement process.
On Monday, the Civic Progress Fund – a dark money outside group with donors that will never be disclosed – dropped $1.24 million in ads on Craig’s behalf, including a spot titled “Keep Standing Up” that portrays Craig as a champion against ICE’s operations in Minnesota and claims she “led the charge” to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Craig’s actual record tells a very different story. In January 2025, she was the only Minnesota Democrat to vote for Trump’s immigration enforcement bill stripping due process protections from immigrants. In June 2025, she broke with House Democratic leadership to vote for a GOP resolution expressing “gratitude” to ICE – the same agency the ad now attacks on her behalf. A $1.24 million ad buy doesn’t change the voting record.
Nobody should be surprised. The Craig campaign has been flashing its red box online – instructions to outside groups telling them exactly where and when to spend. The outside group isn’t freelancing. They are following Craig’s orders.
This is the Craig playbook: court DFL caucusgoers with talk of grassroots organizing while corporate PACs and dark money groups execute air cover on her behalf, on her schedule, at her direction.
“Angie Craig is lying to Minnesotans,” said Kevin Holst, DLGA Executive Director. “She shakes hands with DFL delegates promising to stand up to Trump, while waving in dark money with the other to bury her real record. She’s bragged about not calling herself a Democrat, and her votes back it up. Now a dark money group is spending over a million dollars to pretend none of that happened. The red box doesn’t lie – this isn’t coincidence, it’s coordination. Minnesota Democrats deserve to know who is trying to buy this election for her before they cast a single vote.”
The outside spending operation propping up Craig is nothing new. Throughout her time in Congress, she has accepted millions from special interests, corporations, and Republican donors alike. Crypto super PACs spent more than $1.1 million boosting Craig’s 2024 reelection campaign, and she returned the favor by skipping the Minnesota State Fair to serve as Eric Trump’s warmup act at a cryptocurrency conference.
Monday’s ad drop is just the latest chapter. The only question is how many more are coming – and who’s paying for them.
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