3rd District Candidate Terri Bonoff: Donald Trump Is a Threat to this Nation

After Monday evening’s first presidential debate, State Senator and 3rd District Congressional Candidate Terri Bonoff released a statement of support for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and attacked Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying he is unfit to be president.

"Donald Trump continued to double down on his divisive rhetoric and dangerous policy positions, including promoting the proliferation of nuclear weapons and suggesting that we walk away from our NATO allies," Bonoff said.

"Not only does he pose a danger abroad, his mean-spirited remarks about women, people of color, and his record of stiffing small businesses and his employees reveal a disturbingly out-of-touch candidate for president."

"Make no mistake, his very candidacy is a threat to this nation," she added.

Bonoff contends that her oppenent, incumbent Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen, hasn't done enough to push back against extreme elements in his own party, including Trump, who she's tried to make a centerpiece of the campaign.

National Democrats and Republicans have infused millions of dollars into the 3rd District race. It's a crucial district for Democrats to win if they hope to retake the House.

Analysts at the Cook Political Report currently list the race as leaning Republican, though a poll released by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee showed Bonoff leading Paulsen by two points. Bonoff's lead on Paulsen, however, is well within the poll's 5.2 percentage point margin of error.

Paulsen, who's held the seat since first being elected to it in 2008, is also positioning himself as a moderate while trying to paint Bonoff as an extreme fiscal liberal.

"During last month’s debate hosted by the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce, Bonoff denied voting for a $1 billion tax increase in 2009 she actually did vote for, doubled-down on her vote to bring Obamacare and its crippling premium increases to Minnesota, and tried to claim she may not support Nancy Pelosi for Speaker just a few days before attending a fundraiser at her house," read a news release from the Paulsen campaign.

Bonoff responded just days later.

“In my eleven years in the Minnesota State Senate, I have been proud of the reputation I’ve earned for being a fiscally conservative Democrat, and the recent attacks on me are nothing more than grasping at straws by someone who is more jostled than he’d like us to think," she said in a statement.

“Here are the facts. When the billion-dollar tax hike was proposed in 2013, I was one of only a handful of Democrats to vote NO. In fact, I even came back the next year and was the Chief Author to eliminate many of the taxes put in place, including an exemption for small businesses."

Image: Michael Vadon, Flickr, used under Creative Commons