Whenever a Democrat campaign ad features a “lifelong Republican” who has, mirabile dictu, changed affiliation over whatever the issue du jour is, my first reflex is to reply “no, they most likely are not”.

Angie Craig seems to have a particular facility for finding these miraculous “Lifelong Republicans” who nonetheless agree with her completely on one divisive issue or another – like this self-termed “NRA Sharpshooter” (who trashed all of the rules of gun-handling, on camera, in the on-air ad Angie Craig ran in 2020) who agreed, as luck would have it, with Craig and Michael Bloomberg on every point of their gun control agenda (which made sense, given that he’d been a gun control activist for quite a while).

So when a “lifelong Republican” – and biker, no less! – popped up on a Craig ad to talk about how Craig was singlehandedly making insulin affordable, I thought “there is just no way”.

And I was right. It’s a lie.

“When Dave [Vesledahl] called me to share his story, I promised him that I would continue to do everything in my power to lower prescription drug costs for Minnesotans,” Craig said in a statement. “Everyone deserves access to high-quality, affordable health care—and I’ll be fighting back against the pharmaceutical companies every step of the way.”

But Vesledahl no longer lives in Craig’s district since Minnesota redrew its congressional map this year. He lives in Nerstrand, Minn., which is located in the state’s First Congressional District. Vesledahl’s claim that he’s a “lifelong Republican” is also contradicted by the fact that he voted in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, according to voter files obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

But thats OK – he identifies as a former Republican:

“Dave describes himself as a lifelong Republican, and his voter file registers him as a ‘Lean Republican,’ Craig’s spokeswoman told the Free Beacon.

And I’m a “former Democrat”. When I was young and impressionable and not very bright and, let’s be honest, the perfect Democrat voter.