Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig reflects on attack: ‘I have an extraordinary opportunity’

Over the past year, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Angie Craig has thought a lot about Kendrid Khalil Hamlin.

She told a trauma specialist about Hamlin’s attack. Hamlin was front of mind as she wrote a victim impact statement for his sentencing hearing. He occasionally crops up in her speeches. And, increasingly, he’s on her mind as she’s doing her work in Congress.

“I started to understand the complexity of my feelings about what I had experienced, but also understand that I have an extraordinary opportunity,” said Craig, a Democrat representing Minnesota’s Second District, reflecting on the year since Hamlin assaulted her in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment. “To take what I experienced to understand — at a deeper level — the public safety, mental health and addiction crisis in our country.”

All those issues intersected in Hamlin, who struggled since he was a child with learning disabilities and mental illness that led to addiction and homelessness, his lawyers said. The day Hamlin attacked Craig, he had stepped into her apartment building to get warm.

He followed Craig into the elevator and told her to take him to her apartment. When she refused, Hamlin trapped her, grabbed her neck, slammed her into the steel wall and punched her in the face. She was able to get away by throwing a cup of hot coffee in his face.

The attack marked the 13th time Hamlin had been charged with assault, including another incident when he entered a woman’s apartment.

“I went back and forth over the course of this process, how do I think about what actually happened here, and how do I think about the guy that assaulted me?” Craig said. “It became really apparent that we as a nation have failed on so many levels when an individual like this is free to assault a 13th time, and that we failed him in terms of getting him the support and treatment that he so clearly needed.”

Craig has pushed legislation since the attack that she says helped her process what happened. She co-sponsored the Reconnections Act, which passed the House and directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to expand overdose prevention resources. She led the push to get the FDA to approve Narcan for over-the-counter distribution.

Craig represents a swing district, and her race is again one of the top national targets in the battle to control the House in the fall election.

In her district, she’s brought home grants for substance use disorder-related projects and formed a Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Advisory Council made up of community advocates, parents, teachers, law enforcement and others. At the first meeting, Craig got certified to administer Narcan.

In November, Hamlin was sentenced to 27 months in prison for attacking Craig, less than what the prosecution had called for but more than he’d served for any of his previous assaults. During the grand jury testimony, Craig heard her own 911 call for the first time.

“It’s complicated when something like this happens to you,” Craig said. “I wanted the man who assaulted me to face consequences, and I wanted him to get the help that he needs so that this doesn’t happen to a 14th,15th,16th, 30th person in our community.”

Craig asked for mental health and substance abuse treatment as part of Hamlin’s sentencing.

Craig went back to work within hours of her attack, but she realized it would take time to work through what happened. At the encouragement of her wife, Craig talked to a trauma specialist who worked with House members after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Her own attack shifted her perspectives on the gamesmanship and partisanship in Washington.

“I’m a lot more focused on what really matters,” said Craig. “You bring your full self to work every day. That privilege of serving means that I get to turn something that was really horrible into something that can hopefully help others.”