Backed by a $2 Million Initial Investment, “Mary” features Minnesotan Mary Granlund, Who Witnessed the Abduction of Five-Year-Old Liam Ramos, and Exposes Angie Craig’s Record of Empowering Trump’s ICE
WASHINGTON, DC – The Democratic Lt. Governors Association (DLGA) today announced the launch of a television and digital ad campaign in the Minnesota Senate race exposing Angie Craig’s record of empowering Donald Trump’s mass-deportation machine and praising ICE even as it terrorized Minnesota communities. This initial $2 million buy will run on broadcast, cable and digital channels statewide. This is the DLGA’s first investment in the Minnesota Senate race.
“Angie Craig’s votes handed Donald Trump the keys to Minnesota when ICE descended on the state,” said Kevin Holst, Executive Director of the DLGA. “Craig voted to give ICE the power to abduct and indefinitely detain parents and kids without due process. Then, after masked agents were terrorizing families across the country, she voted to thank them. That’s why Minnesota voters are backing Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, who has defended families from Trump’s ICE raids and delivered for working Minnesotans on the issues that matter most.”
The 30-second spot features Mary Granlund, a Minnesotan who works in schools helping children cope with trauma. She recounts witnessing the day ICE agents seized Liam Ramos, the five-year-old Columbia Heights boy whose January detention became a national symbol of Trump’s mass-deportation cruelty. Mary describes how federal agents ripped Liam from his father’s arms, used him as bait, and shipped him to a detention center in Dilley, Texas.
Craig’s voting record enabled this tragic event. In the days following Trump’s inauguration, she became the only Democrat in Minnesota’s Congressional Delegation to vote for the Laken Riley Act – Trump’s signature immigration bill. The law granted ICE sweeping authority to indefinitely detain immigrants without due process and stripped courts of any jurisdiction to review those detentions. It paved the way for Operation Metro Surge, the militarized ICE occupation of Minneapolis that swept up Liam Ramos and countless other Minnesotans, leaving families across the state traumatized in its wake.
Craig didn’t stop there. On June 9, 2025, she voted for a resolution expressing “gratitude” to ICE, whose masked agents have been disappearing neighbors off Minnesota streets in coordination with CBP, the agency whose agent shot and killed a man in Minneapolis.
The DLGA is the only organization of its kind with a dedicated program to build a strong Democratic bench, and support its members as they run for higher office.
“MARY” TRANSCRIPT
MARY GRANLUND: I was there.
That is a child!
There were armed agents. Masks on, guns.
He’s not a criminal. He’s five!
I begged them to stop. They locked him up in a Texas detention center.
Who takes a child?
And Angie Craig helped ICE do it. She voted to give ICE the power to abduct and indefinitely detain parents and kids like Liam.
And then she voted to thank them.
How could we possibly trust Angie Craig?