Minnesota’s 2nd District sends a progressive to Washington
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Progressive Democrat Matt Little achieved a decisive victory over Republican opponent Eric Pratt on Tuesday in the open race for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District.
Little won 57 percent of the vote to Pratt’s 43 percent, though the results won’t be final until counties finish their election review process. The win marks a shift for the politically purple district, which spans the southern Twin Cities suburbs down into farm country, as Little replaces moderate Democrat Angie Craig. Before Craig, Republicans held the seat for 16 years.
“They said, ‘You’re a little too progressive. You can’t win this.’ But we won this thing!” Little said to supporters at his victory party Tuesday night.
Pratt will finish out his current term in the Minnesota Senate, which ends Jan. 5.
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“I thought we ran a strong campaign. We left everything on the field,” Pratt said Tuesday as it became clear Little would win. Pratt said he expected a blue wave of success for the Democratic Party, but not one this strong.
Little grew up in Lakeville, within the 2nd District. In 2010, he was elected to the city council and in 2012 he became Lakeville’s youngest-ever mayor at the age of 27. He works as a personal injury and medical malpractice attorney and served in the state Senate from 2017 to 2021.
Speaking with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Wednesday, Little said since he was first elected in his 20s a lot has changed.
“The biggest change in my life is I’m a dad now, and that really alters your motivations.” He said he “got into this race because I wanted something left for my daughter.”
Little said Tuesday’s results should be read as voters across the country soundly rejecting Republican President Donald Trump: “A complete and utter repudiation of a guy’s agenda that is mostly focused on his own corruption and self-dealing and selfishness.”
“People have just had enough, and they’re tired of being lied to,” Little said.
Two issues were central to Little’s campaign: curtailing the power of federal immigration agents and passing Medicare for All.
Little has called for federal agents to face charges for last January’s fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.
In Washington, Little said, he wants to immediately cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement back to “pre-Trump levels.” ICE funding has increased dramatically during Trump’s second term. In 2025, the agency received an additional $75 billion to spend over four years, on top of a $10 billion budget — making it the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in the country.
Little goes as far as calling for ICE to be replaced, saying it has lost “any sort of credibility in this country.”
The agency is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Both were created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks during a period of major government reorganization.
“I think it’ll look like it looked like before, where other federal agencies and local law enforcement take on these tasks,” Little said Wednesday.
Little also supports “automatic budget cuts for Homeland Security agencies that fail to follow federal court orders,” according to his campaign website.
When it comes to healthcare, Little has harshly criticized private health insurance companies and argued the country should move to a single-payer system.
“Our healthcare system is built for profit, not for patient care,” Little said Tuesday.
He shared that his mother was seriously ill when he was a teenager, with vertigo that was so bad she couldn’t walk or drive.
“The worst part is no one believed her. Bosses at work didn’t believe her. They convinced her coworkers not to believe her. Her own doctor didn’t believe her. The insurance company sure as hell didn’t believe her, either,” Little said.
Little’s solution is Medicare for All, which is a progressive vision championed by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders for government-run health insurance that would largely replace people’s need to buy private health insurance.
Medicare for All has never faced a vote in Congress. About half of House Democrats have signed on, but fewer than 20 senators have signed on to Sanders’ version of the bill.
Little said “incremental patchwork fixes” have failed to provide accessible and affordable healthcare in the United States for half a century.
Which committees Little ends up serving on in Congress will determine what issues he can influence the most.
Little said Wednesday that he hopes to serve on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is the principal investigative committee of the House.
“I think what ICE and the Trump administration have done to our country needs the highest level of scrutiny,” Little said.
“We are the freest and fairest democracy in the entire world, and I want to keep it that way.”
Little has also called for an end to military aid to Israel, a ban on data center companies signing non-disclosure agreements with local governments, and raising the cap on income subject to Social Security taxation.
On Tuesday night, Little said he’ll represent everyone in his district, whether they voted for him or not. He also committed to working both within his party and across the aisle to pass legislation.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Little said.
Ellie Roth and Melissa Olson contributed to this reporting.
