A non-partisan newsletter that covers U.S. House, Senate, and gubernatorial campaigns, presidential politics, and political developments now ranks the senatorial race in North Dakota, where incumbent Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp is facing Rep. Kevin Cramer, as ‘Tilts Republican.”
The pressure on Heitkamp to bend more toward the prevailing conservative views of her home state in order to hold on to her Senate seat may be a factor in how she votes for President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court seat vacated by retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.
In mid-June, a Valley News Live and Mason-Dixon poll found Cramer holding a 4% lead over Heitkamp.
Last week, after North Dakota Democrats accused Cramer of lying when he filed for reimbursement for 2,300 miles he traveled with his wife Kris across the state to meet voters and constituents, AP reported that North Dakota Democrats claimed “Implausible mileage reimbursements to Kevin and Kris Cramer: The campaign’s reimbursement of $1,152.75 to Rep. Cramer and $531.38 to Kris Cramer for first quarter mileage expenses is highly unusual and almost implausible.”
But AP did a fact check, then asserted, “THE FACTS: It’s not only plausible, it’s true. North Dakota is a big state (69,001 square land miles) and Kevin Cramer is its only U.S. House member. Cramer did drive more than 2,300 miles according to an AP analysis, which mapped the locations to substantiate the mileage and also checked with event organizers and media reports to verify Kevin Cramer’s attendance. The mileage reimbursements he and his wife made to themselves were correct.”