A GOP congressional candidate in Minnesota had an embarrassing slip when his campaign website accidentally revealed that President Donald Trump is too toxic and a political liability.
Eric Pratt, who is running for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, briefly had a message on his website telling his campaign communications team to avoid mentioning the deeply unpopular president and keep the messaging about the locals and their needs.
“The president is not popular, so all messaging should be focused on local politics and needs,” the sentence read.
The instruction showed up in the “Pratt Playbook” section of the website, after a paragraph describing the concerns of the locals he wants to vote for him.
The wording of the message suggests that it’s an internal directive meant for his team rather than a campaign statement. It is unclear how the embarrassing flub ended up on the campaign website. An X user shared a screenshot of the message, which had garnered over 500,000 views at the time of writing this report, and a web archive confirmed it was real.
The campaign has since deleted the Trump snub and continues to promote Pratt’s promises to lower the cost of living, support farmers, and offer refundable child tax credits among other policies.
Pratt’s opponent has already used Trump as an attack during the campaign. During a debate, his Democratic opponent, Matt Little, claimed his policies are similar to the president, stating: “Now he’s a nice guy. He doesn’t sound like Trump, but his politics are one of quiet extremism.”
Little also teased him for trying to distance himself from the toxic president. During an appearance at the Minnesota State Fair, Little called Pratt “scared of daddy Trump,” but Pratt rejected the association and said he is focused on his district.
“Matt Little is running against Donald Trump, and I’m really running to represent the people of the Second District,” Pratt told The Minnesota Star Tribune in September.
Pratt is hoping to replace Democratic Rep. Angie Craig, who chose not to seek another House term.
He faces Little, who is a former state senator and Lakeville mayor in the midterms.
The district has been historically competitive but moved toward the Democrats in recent elections, which makes his strategy to distance himself from the president unsurprising, to say the least.
Pratt is one of many GOP candidates running for House and Senate seats who are forced to think about how having an association with Trump could damage their chances.
Other Republican candidates have also edited campaign materials to distance themselves from the president, who is polling at his lowest point in his political career.
Pratt is yet to acknowledge the slip on his campaign website, and it remains unclear how it got there.