Stauber’s failure

Northeastern Minnesota has always sent people to Washington who worked for and answered to the people of the region. These were lawmakers who were willing to challenge a president of either party when their actions threatened the interests of the Arrowhead or failed to live up to the terms of the U.S. Constitution. With Rep. Pete Stauber, that is no longer the case.
Over four terms, Stauber has evolved from a former Duluth police officer who originally sold himself as an independent voice into one of President Trump’s most reliable cheerleaders, regardless of what the president does, regardless of how many promises he breaks, regardless of how negatively his actions impact the North Country.
Consider the war in Iran. Donald Trump campaigned as the candidate who would end foreign entanglements, not start new ones. The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to take this country to war, yet when Donald Trump did so without congressional approval, Pete Stauber did nothing to challenge him. A representative who believes in the Constitution doesn’t give away Congress’s most solemn power without a fight. In the eight months since Trump attacked Iran, northern Minnesota families with sons and daughters in uniform have heard nothing from their congressman about the war’s goals, its cost, or when it might end.
When the Trump administration sent thousands of heavily armed, masked ICE agents to the Twin Cities earlier this year, with clear intent to sow public anger and discord, Stauber stood with Trump rather than the people of Minnesota. Even the murder of two Minnesota citizens and the shooting of a lawful resident by ICE agents did nothing to prompt reconsideration from a congressman who long ago surrendered his independence to a president that most Americans now recognize as unhinged and a threat to our democracy. Instead, he attacked those trying to defend our state against Trump’s provocations.
While Trump claimed that his anti-immigrant push would focus on “the worst of the worst,” we now know that fully 75 percent of those in custody have no criminal record. Even legal residents, such as those with valid green cards, or other legitimate visas are being locked up in conditions that, in many cases, would be considered mistreatment for livestock. It is intentional cruelty directed at people of color, and Pete Stauber offers only praise for this physical and emotional violence.
As Trump and his family have filled their pockets with billions in crypto sales, defense contracts, pardon payoffs, foreign gifts, and shady deals with foreign oligarchs, Stauber has maintained radio silence, never once challenging what is, by far, the most blatant presidential corruption in American history.
When Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” slashed Medicaid to pay for tax cuts that heavily favor corporations and the wealthy, it nearly guaranteed cuts if not closures for rural hospitals in our region, beginning in 2027. Range Regional Health Services in Hibbing has been identified as one of those systems most at risk of closure due to the cuts. Those cuts are also pushing more health system consolidation, such as the recently announced merger of Essentia and HealthPartners. As recent history has shown, health system mergers invariably lead to the loss of services at smaller rural or small-town hospitals and clinics along with centralization of more specialized care. That means fewer jobs in our local communities and higher costs for patients who now must travel further for care. That process is likely to accelerate under these Medicaid cuts. Yet Stauber dutifully sided with Trump, even as the bill— now law— clearly put health care at risk in the Eighth District.
As the Trump administration suspended Medicaid payments to the state, over grossly exaggerated claims of widespread fraud, Stauber put the blame on Minnesota rather than on an administration that was clearly targeting political opponents, like Gov. Tim Walz.
Even on mining, Stauber has failed the region. Trump’s reckless tariffs have undermined the U.S. auto industry, which is the single largest consumer of steel produced from Iron Range taconite. The Range’s taconite industry has lost 15 percent of its workforce since Trump took office, with no sign of a pending recovery. But Trump, with Stauber’s full support, has ensured we’ll have more mercury in our walleye with the suspension of stricter mercury emission rules for taconite plants. How does that help our region?
When push comes to shove, Stauber is there for Trump, not the people of Minnesota. He’s always willing to further the administration’s falsehoods and partisan attacks. Through it all, Rep. Stauber has shown disdain for his own constituents, refusing to hold town halls that offer residents of the Eighth District the chance to challenge Stauber’s fealty to the most destructive president America has ever seen. On Nov. 3, voters of the Eighth District should give him the boot.