“A Very Good Story to Tell on Results” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp Stands by Her Record in ND Senate Race Interview
It was an easy primary election win for Democratic U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota since she faced no party challenger.
November will be another story when she comes up against Rep. Kevin Cramer for her seat in the Senate.
KVRR talked to Senator Heitkamp Tuesday about the race that is heating up between the two candidates.
Campaign ad: Sen. Heidi Heitkamp: “When I ran for the Senate 6 years ago I said I wouldn’t vote the party line. Because I don’t think any party has all the right answers.”
TJ: You just released a new campaign ad about voting with Republican President Donald Trump over half the time.
Do your fellow Democrats in North Dakota have an issue with your voting record?
“Well I certainly don’t think so I think that when I was nominated by the Democratic party and asked to serve they know who I am and they know that I like getting results and that frequently I think in politics we focus on when we forget to mention that a lot of times we do and the important thing to know is we can work together that we can be respectful and we can achieve some pretty good things if we check our ideology and our partisanship at the door and work for the betterment of the American people and the people of my state.”
TJ: “Your competitor, Representative Kevin Cramer, recently accused you of going out of your way to stand next to the president during his signing of a banking bill you supported and called your actions “obsene”.
Are you a better friend of the president’s than Mr. Cramer?
Heitkamp: “I don’t think that’s what this is about. The important thing on the banking bill is to understand that banking bill wouldn’t have gotten done without my activity. This was a bill that I sponsored. This is a bill that I worked very, very hard to get across the finish line. I serve on the banking committee. I was there at the invitation of the president to celebrate a great bipartisan win. Kevin Cramer voted for the bill and as far as I know that’s the extent of his participation. So it makes perfect sense that the president would reach out and congratulate me on the banking bill given that I was one of the prime architects of that bill.”
TJ: “Alright finally your last election for U.S. Senate was very close. How do you think it’ll go this time?”
Heitkamp: “You know I think this is a race that won’t be decided until Election Day. We’ve got a very good story to tell about results. Whether it’s opening up oil exports, whether it’s lowering environmental regulations that don’t make much sense. Whether it is in fact banking regulations, the work we’ve done on first responders I mean the opioid work I’m very proud of the work that I’ve done with communities on developing strategies to combat opioid abuse. So there are a whole lot of things that we’re going to talk about. The work that I’ve done on human trafficking and how I’ve represented people in North Dakota and I think when we get a chance to tell that story and talk about why we want to continue on our work I feel confident that we’ll be successful in November.”
