Congresswoman Angie Craig skipped the DFL Party endorsing convention in May and plunged straight into a primary campaign against the DFL-endorsed candidate, Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan.

“You have to go everywhere,” Craig said about seeking support from a broader number of DFL voters. “You have to talk to everyone.”

Craig says she’s making the case she’s more electable than Flanagan in a statewide race against a Republican. “The Lieutenant governor has a unique vulnerability in this particular race,” she says. “You know Republicans are going to pummel millions of dollars in ads against Democrats on fraud.”

Craig has taken her own criticism about fraud in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) because she’s the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee.

“Well, JD Vance is full of crap,” is her response to his allegation she didn’t do enough oversight to prevent fraud in the program. “And they can try that on me or Senator Klobuchar but it’s not going to land. Actually, the SNAP program has one of the lowest rates of fraud of any government program. It’s under two percent.”

But it was pointed out that two percent is a lot of money in a $100 billion dollar program. “They can bring the fraud to me but I promise you they will not make it stick,” she says. “Any (fraud) is too much…and I think that is the message I will send to Minnesota voters.”

Flanagan has also criticized Craig for her vote in favor of the Laken Riley Act, which some say emboldened the Trump administration to instigate Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities last winter. The law signed by President Trump early in his current term as president, allows for detention of undocumented immigrants without bail if accused of crimes, both violent and non-violent.

“I regret giving this administration an inch. Any inch on immigration,” Craig said in an interview recorded for “At Issue with Tom Hauser,” even though she maintains the new law didn’t directly lead to Operation Metro Surge. “This entire attack, assault on Minnesota has made me more committed than ever to supporting our immigrant neighbors.”

You can see this entire interview Sunday at 10 a.m. on “At Issue.”