Fact Check: 'Lifelong Republican' in Craig ad voted recently for Democrats, doesn't live in new district

(FOX 9) - Endorsements from people in the opposing political party can be potent in campaigns.

Just look at former President Donald Trump showering several longtime Democratic mayors on Minnesota's Iron Range with praise after they backed him in 2020. Or President Joe Biden, who won the endorsement of Republicans John Kasich and Carly Fiorina that same year.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig has made her bipartisan credentials a key theme in her rematch against Republican Tyler Kistner, one of the country's most expensive congressional races. In her latest ad, Craig gets an assist from a voter named Dave Vesledahl of Nerstrand.

"I’ve been a lifelong Republican. But I won’t stand for politicians like Tyler Kistner," Vesledahl says in the ad's opening moments.

The ad reinforces the words "lifelong Republican" with on-screen text, but this is not the whole story. Vesledahl voted in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, according to a voter file Republicans sent to FOX 9.

In a statement from Craig's campaign, Vesledahl said he voted for both Republicans and Democrats in 2020.

"For my entire adult life, I voted red up and down the ticket," he said. "But the extreme views of today's Republican candidates, like Tyler Kistner and Donald Trump, changed that for me. I didn't leave the Republican Party, they left me."

Minnesota isn't among the states that force voters to identify with a party when they register to vote. But in 2020, the switch from a presidential caucus to a primary came with a change in state law.

"The secretary of state must maintain a list of the voters who voted in a presidential nomination primary and the political party each voter selected," the law says, requiring that the state provide that list to each political party.

One other thing is clear: Vesledahl can't vote for Craig this fall. After redistricting, he now lives in Minnesota's first congressional district. Craig represents the second congressional district.

Criticism of Kistner over drug prices

Vesledahl's wife is a diabetic, and insulin prices have skyrocketed in recent years. In the ad, he touts Craig's plan "to cap insulin at $35 a month, then brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass it."

This is true. This year, Craig was the co-author of legislation to cap the out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35 a month.

The House passed the measure with limited Republican support. It stalled in the Senate over GOP dissent.

On Wednesday, a Kistner campaign spokesman told FOX 9 that Kistner supports the $35 monthly cap. Until now, his position on the insulin price cap hasn't been clear.

In the ad, Vesledahl calls Kistner "a fraud and a sellout" over pharmaceutical prices. "(Kistner) opposed letting Medicare negotiate lower prices," he says.

This needs clarification because Kistner doesn't have a voting record.

This summer, Kistner was against a broad climate, health care, and tax law that allows Medicare to negotiate the cost of some high-priced drugs for the first time. Democrats, including Craig, passed it without Republican support.

Kistner said he opposed the law for a different reason: because it raises taxes on some corporations.

The new law caps Medicare recipients' out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month, but Craig favors applying the cap for all diabetics.

FOX 9 Fact Check: Here's our rating system

• True: accurate information that requires little or no additional context
• Needs clarification: mostly accurate information that leaves out context that would be helpful to voters
• Not the whole story: the information presented leaves out a significant amount of context that could lead voters to a different conclusion
• Misleading: partial information presented in a way that misleads voters
• False: inaccurate information, or information presented out of context

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