Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp on Friday moved to capitalize on the growing anxiety over President Trump’s trade policies in North Dakota as she attempts to hold off an aggressive challenge from Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer.
Amid polling showing Cramer with a small but durable lead in this key midterm election contest, the Heitkamp campaign unveiled a new television advertisement that accuses Cramer of indifference to farmers hurt by an escalating trade confrontation with China that was instigated by Trump. In the spot, a farmer from Carrington, N.D., discusses the panic of seeing Chinese orders for his soybean crops stall as the harvest season, beginning just prior to Election Day, approaches.
“Mr. Cramer, that trade war is costing my family a lot of money, and you don’t seem to care,” the farmer, identified as Charles Linderman, says as he speaks straight to camera from the middle of a field of soybean plants, like those that blanket much of North Dakota.
The ongoing dispute is threatening to halt U.S. exports to China worth billions of dollars annually to North Dakota farmers and related agriculture industry workers. Beijing has been holding off on order of soybeans and other commodities in retaliation for the tariffs the Trump administration has slapped on Chinese imports in an attempt to extract more favorable trading terms for American goods.
Cramer for months has expressed concern with Trump’s strategy, worried it might boomerang on an industry critical to North Dakota’s economy. He aggressively lobbied the administration for federal funds to keep farmers afloat until the trade war with China is resolved.
But the congressman has been careful about how he criticizes the White House in public, wary of alienating the president and losing Republican votes in what is generally a conservative, pro-Trump state. Fresh August polling data from Morning Consult showed the president with a job approval rating of 51 percent in North Dakota. So perhaps it’s telling that the Heitkamp spot on trade never mentions Trump. The 30-second ad, backed by six figures on broadcast television and digital platforms, frames the issue as simply: “the trade war.”
“China is canceling their contracts to buy soybeans. North Dakota is losing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of business. But when you ask Kevin Cramer why he supports the trade war, he criticizes farmers,” Linderman says.
Meanwhile, the Cramer campaign is up with a television spot accusing Heitkamp of distorting the congressman’s record on healthcare.
Heitkamp is running on her support for Obamacare, claiming that Cramer’s opposition to the law jeopardizes government regulations that force insurance companies to provide coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions. Cramer has repeatedly stated his support for those regulations and denies that repealing the healthcare system implemented under former President Barack Obama would eliminate them.
“Heidi, stop trying to mislead North Dakota,” the voiceover says. “Here’s the truth: Kevin Cramer voted for guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions. And, Heidi’s ads attacking Kevin on health care? They don’t pass the smell test.”
“Senator Heitkamp playing politics with our farmers and ranchers is hurting North Dakotans,” said North Dakota Republican Party communications director Jake Wilkins. “Her new ad is entitled ‘Blame,’ but when voters reject Heitkamp’s blatant politicization of the agriculture community this November, the only person she’ll have to blame is herself.”
[Related: Facing attacks, North Dakota GOP Senate candidate pledges support for pre-existing conditions]
