The Republican candidate for Minnesota’s open 2nd Congressional District, Eric Pratt, appears to have removed a line of text on his website that said “the President is not popular, so all messaging should be focused on local politics and needs."
The sentence appeared in the “Pratt Playbook” section of the campaign website, immediately after a paragraph outlining Pratt's priorities of affordability, accountability and safe communities.
The line has since been removed, but the apparent blunder has been shared across social media where many have suggested it looks like an AI prompt. One post sharing the now altered mistake has been viewed more than 530,000 times on X.
The sentence was visible on the campaign site by at least October 9 and appeared in archived copies on October 10 and 13. It had been removed by October 20, after a screenshot began circulating online.
Newsweek reached out to the Pratt campaign for comment, and was not able to verify if the text was a result of AI generated content.
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Republicans Play Down Trump Ties Ahead of Midterms
Newsweek was not able to find evidence that President Donald Trump has publicly endorsed Pratt in his race, but the removed wording is another example of Republican candidates appearing to distance themselves from Trump in the upcoming midterm elections.
Despite the president urging rally crowds to “pretend that I’m on the ballot,” his party is increasingly omitting mentions of him in campaign materials.
According to analysis from the New York Times, based on AdImpact data, Republicans have spent $830 million on ads airing September 9 to October 17, but less than 1 percent of these have made mention of Trump. While an October 7 Reuters review found that Republican candidates in 41 of 62 competitive House and Senate races, roughly two-thirds, had either broken with Trump on an issue or played down their ties to him.
Some pollsters have placed the president’s approval ratings at record lows, with support on issues including Iran, the economy and international trade waning with the public.
Michigan House candidate Michael Bouchard swapped a sticker on his site from "Endorsed by President Donald J. Trump" to "Republican Nominee for MI-10” in September. While Florida House candidate Mike Beltran swapped out a picture of himself with the president to one of his family.
The assessment of the president's popularity also broadly reflects recent polling in Minnesota, where Pratt is running. A September SurveyUSA poll found that just 37 percent of registered voters in the state approved of Trump's job performance, compared with 62 percent who disapproved, his lowest net rating in the pollster's series since his return to office.
“Republicans across the country are distancing themselves from Trump,” Republican strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Mike Madrid previously told Newsweek, adding that, "congressional candidates can’t drop the Trump anchor fast enough.”
The White House has previously disputed suggestions that Republican candidates are distancing themselves from Trump, telling Newsweek that candidates are focusing on issues affecting their states rather than breaking with the president. An official said claims of candidates distancing themselves from Trump “could not be further from the truth.”
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Why Minnesota's 2nd District Matters
Eric Pratt, a Republican Minnesota state senator, is running against former Democratic state senator Matt Little for the 2nd Congressional District seat that has been left open by Democratic Representative Angie Craig.
Craig has represented the district since 2019 and gave up the seat to run for the U.S. Senate.
The district is rated Likely Democratic by Cook Political Report, Inside Elections and Sabato's Crystal Ball. The most recent public poll, conducted by Democratic firm Impact Research in September, showed Little leading Pratt 52 percent to 40 percent.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton and Emma Lee-Sang