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U of M alumna elected to U.S. House of Representatives

<p>U.S. Representative from Minnesota and former <em>Daily Helmsman</em> editor Angie Craig</p>
U.S. Representative from Minnesota and former Daily Helmsman editor Angie Craig

University of Memphis alumna Angie Craig will become Congresswoman Craig after being elected to the United States House of Representatives during the midterm elections on Nov. 6.

Craig joined other Democratic candidates who successfully took control of the House, which was previously controlled by the Republican Party. Craig will represent  Minnesota’s second congressional district.

As a freshman at the U of M, Craig began writing for The Daily Helmsman and quickly worked her way up to become the editor-in-chief.

“I was a freshman English major and wandered into the Helmsman to answer an ad that folks needed freelance writers,” Craig said. “I think I got a couple of stories published, and the next thing I knew, I was a staff reporter. Then I was news editor. Then I was managing editor, and then I was editor.”

Craig said she began digging into any controversy she could find at what was then Memphis State University.

“I think it’s ironic that I ended up running for public office because I know the student [government] probably thought I gave them hell when I was a reporter there,” Craig said. “I remember Tre Hargett, who’s the Secretary of State in Tennessee now. He was the president of the student senate, and I don’t know if he was too fond of my reporting at the time.”

After becoming an editor, Craig described running a daily newspaper written by college students as the greatest challenge she ever faced.

“I always say that the hardest job I had was herding all those college students to put out a daily newspaper,” Craig said. “That was still the hardest job I’ve had.”

Elinor Grusin, a retired U of M journalism professor and former general manager of The Daily Helmsman, said Craig had both initiative and a hardworking attitude from the start.

“She came in as a young freshman,” Grusin said. “I started asking her questions, and the long and short of it was she did not know what she was doing. She hadn’t had any coursework yet.”

Grusin said Craig’s work at the school paper produced excellent, popular stories.

“She began writing stories that were blockbusters,” Grusin said. “I remember one that she wrote that involved a professor who had been hired at the college of business who, it turns out, had been accused of mishandling grant money where he came from.”

After graduation, Craig was able to land a position as a reporter for The Commercial Appeal, where she worked for two years. She said she would do whatever was necessary to get the story.

“I remember one car accident that was down on the interstate, and I had some bystanders lower me off of a bridge down on to the hill so that I could make my way down onto the interstate because they had it closed,” Craig said. “I was pretty determined even then to get the story.”

Jerome Wright, director of communications at LeMoyne-Owen College and former opinion editor at The Commercial Appeal, said he was impressed with her while she worked for the paper.

“She was a good reporter,” Wright said. “She had a nice way about her. She knew how to be a bulldog without making the enemy run under the bridge.”

Wright said, despite her aggressive reporting, Craig had a heart for people and will make a good representative.

“I think she’s going to do really well,” Wright said. “Angie’s always been able to see the bigger picture. She cares about people.”

Craig said her journalism background gave her an edge when traveling around the district during her campaign.

“It’s funny because as I traveled around the congressional district running for Congress, it felt a lot like driving around DeSoto County back in the early part of my career,” Craig said. “My job was to drive around, meet interesting people, listen to their stories and, at the time, I wrote a story about them. What I did in my campaign is listen to their stories to help inform what I need to work on as a member of Congress.”

U.S. Representative from Minnesota and former Daily Helmsman editor Angie Craig

U.S. Representative from Minnesota and former Daily Helmsman editor Angie Craig reacts after learning of her election.


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