MINNEAPOLIS — Republicans got a straighter path to potential victory Saturday in what is expected to be Minnesota’s closest congressional race when GOP-endorsed candidate Tayler Rahm dropped out of a primary fight against the better-funded Joe Teirab, who already had tacit backing from key House leaders.

Rahm, a political newcomer and defense attorney, said in a statement that he was shifting gears to serve as a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump’s campaign in Minnesota, where Trump insists he can defeat President Joe Biden after coming close to carrying the traditionally Democratic state in 2016.

That gives Teirab — a Marine Cops veteran, former federal prosecutor and son of a Sudanese immigrant — free rein to focus on incumbent Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in the highly competitive 2nd District, which includes suburban and rural areas south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and represents one of the best pickup opportunities for the narrow House Republican majority.

“In my opinion, there is nothing more important for this district than getting Biden (or a Democrat replacement) out of power and getting Donald Trump back in the White House,” Rahm said in a statement. “Therefore, I will suspend my campaign operations and focus on doing everything possible to save our country.”

Rahm won the endorsement with 74% of the vote at the district GOP convention in April, with backing from grassroots conservatives despite Teirab’s huge fundraising edge and expected support from establishment Minnesota Republicans like House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who is Trump’s state chairman.

Teirab on Thursday announced he had raised nearly $700,000 in the second quarter, bringing his total for the cycle to over $1.5 million, while ending the quarter with over $813,000 in cash on hand that he can now devote to the general election campaign. Rahm has not yet announced his second-quarter numbers.

Craig, who last Saturday called for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race and allow a new nominee to emerge, hasn’t announced her latest quarterly totals either but finished the first quarter with $2.8 million in the bank.

In a statement Saturday, Teirab extended his “sincere gratitude to Tayler Rahm for his selfless decision to step out of the race in order to help re-elect Donald J. Trump as President. Tayler is a strong conservative and a relentless fighter for the America First agenda. He ran a great campaign, and I can’t think of a better person to help mobilize grassroots conservatives across Minnesota.”

But leaders of the grassroots conservative group Action 4 Liberty accused Rahm of selling them out. The group’s president, Erik Mortensen, tweeted that Rahm proved to be “just another corrupt candidate that’s easily bought and paid for.” He also posted a video of a Rahm sign burning in an outdoor fireplace, saying: “Disposing the trash. So tired of sellouts in politics. ”

The House GOP’s campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, was quick to throw its weight behind Teirab.

“Tayler Rahm’s selfless decision to put the team first allows Republicans to unite and defeat extreme Democrat Angie Craig,” spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement. “Joe Teirab is one of our strongest candidates in the nation and will fight relentlessly for Minnesotans every single day.”

Craig’s campaign said in a fundraiser email to supporters that she is up against a pro-Trump extremist.

“National Republicans will flood this district with millions now that they have an official candidate,” Craig said in the email. “The general election starts today, and my opponent and his allies will use every dollar at their disposal to unseat me and expand the GOP’s narrow House majority.”

The state chairman of the Democratic Party in Minnesota said they will stress Craig’s support for abortion rights in the campaign to keep the suburban seat blue.

“Throughout his campaign, Joe Teirab has made it clear that he is 100% pro-life and will do everything he can to attack abortion rights and roll back reproductive freedoms in Congress,” Ken Martin said in a statement.

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The idea to give Joe Mauer one last moment behind the plate was a popular one. So popular, in fact, that it’s impossible to know in whose head the spark initially appeared.

“I’d like to claim the idea as mine. but I had no part in the origination of that,” said Paul Molitor, the Twins’ manager at the time. “I was part of the initial discussions, but there were a few steps to get to that point.”

Molitor will be part of a large St. Paul contingent in Cooperstown, N.Y., next weekend to celebrate Mauer’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, where on Sunday Mauer will join Molitor (2005), Dave Winfield (2001) and Jack Morris (2018) as St. Paul natives enshrined in the hall.

No one can quite agree on exactly whose idea it really was to give Mauer one last moment behind the plate. Among those playing a role were then-bench coach Derek Shelton, replay coordinator Nate Damman, traveling secretary Mike Herman, public relations chief Dustin Morse and equipment manager Rod McCormick. But it’s hard to pinpoint its inception.

What remains clear, six years after that 5-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox, is that implementing the plan required some convincing.

Certainly, the White Sox — the Twins’ opponent on Sept. 30, 2018 — had to acquiesce to letting Mauer don his catching gear for the first time in five years and take a single pitch in the eighth inning of the season finale at Target Field. They turned out to be the easy part.

“I know I had to make that phone call to include the White Sox, and that they didn’t really balk at all,” Molitor said.

More difficult to convince were Molitor himself, who said Saturday, “I wasn’t on board right away,” and Mauer himself.

“One of the big (hurdles) was Joe’s feelings about it — his concerns for the integrity of the game and the other club,” Molitor recalled. “He didn’t want to take away a moment, even if it was just one pitch.”

During a teleconference facilitated by the hall on Friday evening, Mauer acknowledged his hesitance after being approached about it during a meeting with Molitor, Shelton and Damman in the manager’s office.

“When they brought it up, I started to kind of cry. It was just very emotional,” he said. “I wasn’t really thinking that, and when I first heard it, I didn’t want it to be about me. I wanted to finish the season strong, and we had a lot of young players on that team; I knew that even though we were out of it, I wanted to kind of show them that when you become a major leaguer, you go out there and play every game and you finish the season.”

By then, Molitor had softened to the idea and worked with the others to convince Mauer it was OK.

“Hearing their reasons for it, and hearing from Mollie, it wasn’t about me — it was about a lot of people there who experienced my career and kind of grew up with me — that it was much bigger than me,” Mauer said. “I’m glad I took that opportunity.”

Mauer, 41, produced a stack of highlights on the field over the years, but that last pitch might be his most indelible moment of his career, at least here in the Twin Cities, where he became a three-sport star at Cretin-Derham Hall and played his entire 18-year major league career.

As soon as the 30,144 in attendance noticed that it was Mauer, trademark red-white-and-blue batting helmet on his head, coming out in catcher’s gear, it rose spontaneously into a standing ovation. With Yoan Moncada taking the pitch — he later doubled — Mauer crouched behind the plate one last time and took a pitch from reliever Matt Belisle before taking a moment to soak in what amounted to a communal goodbye hug.

That moment, Mauer said Friday, was the one that finally cemented his decision to retire.

“It was the last year of my contract, and I was 35 years old. I had missed time with a concussion that season,” he said. “Those thoughts kind of come back in, at least for me. ‘Is this gonna be it?’ I really didn’t know. All I knew was I wanted to finish the season strong.”

Minnesota has always loved Mauer, but it also had been hard on him — for not hitting more home runs, for grounding into double plays, for missing 80 games with “bilateral leg weakness” in 2011 and not playing in more games generally. Mostly, Mauer’s critics were mad at him for being a good first baseman, a decision made after he suffered a serious concussion behind the plate in 2013, instead of the best catcher in baseball.

Mauer remains the only catcher to win three batting titles, and his remarkable 2009 season — .365 batting average, 28 home runs, 96 runs batted in, Gold Glove — was one of the best by any major league catcher. He won the American League Most Valuable Player Award that fall, and in the spring he signed an eight-year, $184 million contract extension.

He never had another season like that one. No one did. But it was a disappointment for a segment of Twins fans that expected, or at least hoped for, that to be the norm from the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 amateur draft — especially after he hit .327 with a .408 on-base percentage (!) in his first six seasons.

And they wouldn’t let it go.

But all that melted away in the ninth inning of that last game, when he caught one last pitch after hitting the last of his club-record 428 doubles in his last at-bat. Finally, Mauer felt that unconditional love again, and knew it was time — even if he spent part of his postgame news conference feigning indecision.

“To really think it over, and having some time to process what (had) just happened,” he said Saturday, “all those signs were basically telling me, ‘It’s OK. It’s OK to be done. You had a great run, and it’s time to go and enjoy your family.’ And it’s been great ever since.”

Sunday’s induction ceremony begins at 12:30 p.m. CDT and will be televised by MLB Network.

Minnesota Twins’ Joe Mauer donned catcher’s gear and caught for one pitch against a Chicago White Sox batter in the ninth inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, in Minneapolis. The Twins won 5-4. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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