Pete Stauber

Jen Shultz

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REGIONAL— The two leading candidates in Minnesota’s Eighth District congressional race held a spirited debate in Hibbing last Friday, sponsored by the Hibbing Area Chamber of Commerce.
Both candidates came out swinging from the start. In his opening statement, current U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber accused his DFL opponent, Jen Schultz, of “voting with Twin Cities liberals to abolish our mining industry” and falsely stated that she was the chief author of a “prove it first” bill Stauber claimed was the most anti-mining legislation in the state’s history. “Unlike my opponent, I am the champion for mining on the Iron Range and in the United States. I am fighting for our families,” Stauber said.
Schultz, who has spent eight years in the Minnesota House representing the Duluth area, fired back. “I’m running for Congress to solve problems and get things done and I’ve been a state representative doing just that, working across the aisle, working with all parties and what you’ve just heard are a bunch of lies,” she said. “It all makes a good sound clip for Pete’s campaign but a lot of that is not true.”
Schultz, an economist who teaches at UMD when not in the Legislature, offered a bit of her background, noting that she was raised by a single mother after her parents divorced when she was five years old. “And we struggled,” she added. “I know what it’s like to struggle, to not have money, to take government assistance for a short time to have housing and food.” She said voters in the Eighth are looking for a member of Congress who will show up and bring results, and she accused Stauber of being captured by Washington lobbyists and his party at the expense of his district.
The two candidates had an equally sharp exchange when asked to grade Joe Biden on his job as president. Stauber, who appeared angry at times, said he’d give Biden “an F with a red circle around it” accusing the president of sparking the worst inflation in 40 years. “It’s caused gas prices to go through the roof, energy prices through the roof, groceries three and four times what they should cost.”
While Stauber repeatedly sought to tie Schultz to Biden, Schultz kept the focus on Stauber, giving him an F on his work in Congress. “They passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, that’s $7 billion for Minnesota and 100,000 jobs. Stauber voted against it. They passed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act to invest in youth mental health and our schools. Stauber voted no. They cut child poverty in half with the American Rescue Plan and Stauber voted no. They kept prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare. Stauber voted no.”
Stauber said Schultz, who gave Biden a B for his job as president, had told an MPR interviewer that she was “so impressed at 40-year high inflation, so impressed with open borders, so impressed with a foreign policy that has been a disaster, so impressed with five dollar a gallon gas.”
“Stop misrepresenting what I say,” responded Schultz. “People are tired of the lies that you tell them in your newsletters and on your website. I have no reason to lie to you because I’m not bought by corporate interests. I am not taking corporate PAC money. Stauber gets over a million dollars from corporate interests. He has gone D.C.”
Stauber repeatedly hammered on the cost of gas and blamed Biden for the rise, ignoring that energy prices have risen globally. Schultz pointed to economic data that suggests over half of the increase in prices is going to fund record corporate profits. “The largest oil companies are making over $20 billion in profits this quarter,” she said. “They’re buying back stock and their shareholders are gaining wealth on the backs of working people.”
She said much of the legislation passed in Washington in the past year was designed to reduce the cost of many of the things that families buy, such as prescription medication. She noted that while Congress and the president signed a big increase in heating assistance dollars for low and moderate-income families, Stauber opposed that assistance. “There’s a lot more we can do and I want to do it,” said Schultz.
Stauber said the best way to reduce inflation is to “stop the reckless spending” and what he called “Christmas gifts to other politicians.” Stauber blamed spending in Washington for ongoing inflation, which is affecting the entire globe, and attacked Schultz for backing what he called “Biden’s war on American energy,” even though the U.S. remains a net petroleum exporter. “Five hours after being sworn in, he killed the excellent Keystone pipeline,” said Stauber. That pipeline was built to ship Canadian tar sands oil to Gulf Coast refineries, primarily for export.
On student loan forgiveness, Stauber said he opposed Biden’s decision, calling it political. “People who didn’t go to college should not be forced to pay student loans for those who did,” he said, and he encouraged a greater focus on getting young people into trades rather than in college.
Schultz agreed with part of Stauber’s answer. “I’m 100 percent behind the trades. That’s why I’m endorsed by almost every labor union and I’m proud of it,” she added. Schultz said the state needs to provide more funding for higher education to bring down the cost of tuition, which is the other way to help students afford a four-year degree. She also called out Stauber for hypocrisy, noting that he had received tens of thousands of dollars in PPP loans for his hockey business, loans which were ultimately forgiven.
When asked about the three most important issues facing Congress, Stauber said it would be reducing wasteful spending, strengthening the economy, and improving public safety. “We’re going to put legislation together that keeps our cities and our communities safe, that fund the police and not voting to disarm and defund the police like my opponent,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that Biden has a foreign policy that puts America and our allies first,” he added.
Whether Stauber considers Ukraine an ally remains unclear, however, as he declined to answer whether he would support continued military and economic aid to the country.
Stauber accused Biden of punishing Americans, but Schultz argued it was Stauber who was punishing the Eighth District by putting party over his constituents. “Stauber is punishing us by not representing us in Congress and not helping our communities.” She noted that Republicans, like Stauber “only care about national debt and deficits when there’s a Democratic president. “When our former president was in office, we added over $7 trillion to the debt,” she said, adding that Biden had brought the deficit down by $1.4 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. It was the largest drop in the deficit in a single year on record.
On supporting the mining industry, Stauber said he’s been promoting copper-nickel mining and said the region’s minerals are critical to America’s security and accused Schultz of not supporting the mining industry. “If we’ve learned anything involving COVID in our supply chains, we cannot rely on foreign adversarial nations for these critical minerals,” he said.
Schultz denied Stauber’s charge. “I’m 100 percent for our miners and our mining industry. That is a fact and it’s why I’m endorsed by the U.S. Steelworkers and many other groups that work in the mines.” Schultz said Stauber has given lip service to the mining industry, but has voted against a number of bills that would have benefitted miners on the Iron Range. “He voted against [the mining industry] when he voted no on the CHIPS Act, which provides incentives to use U.S. domestic minerals to make computer chips. He voted no on the Inflation Reduction Act that has incentives to make electric vehicle batteries. He hasn’t passed one pro-mining bill.”