President Obama Weighs in on Minnesota's Third District Race

President Barack Obama has weighed in on Minnesota's competitive Third District race between Rep. Erik Paulsen and State Sen. Terri Bonoff. In a video released Wednesday, Obama endorsed Democratic Bonoff, saying "Terri is running for Congress, and we need a lot more people like her in Washington. In the State Senate, she worked with Democrats and Republicans to expand early education, lower the cost of student loans, and end the road funding stalemate after the bridge collapse."

Though not by name, in the video, Obama mentions Bonoff's son, Joe Paulsen, who's an assistant to the president. One of the perks of Paulsen's role in the White House is that he gets to play a round of golf with the leader of the free world on the weekends, the Star Tribune reported.

“Joe has been an essential member of my team from Day One,”Obama said in a statement recently to the Star Tribune. “And over the years, he’s become a great friend.”

In the past, a majority of voters in the Third District have gone for Obama. The district, known for centrism and political independence, has also gone for Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar while reelecting Republican Paulsen.

Both Bonoff and Paulsen have tried to portray the other in the race as extreme.

"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."

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