Rep. Kevin Cramer’s, R-N.D., Senate campaign on Friday lashed out at an influential conservative group for wading into the midterm contest in North Dakota to praise Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.
Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers organization that has pledged millions to protect Republican majorities in Congress, is airing digital advertisements thanking Heitkamp for working with Republicans to pass a roll back of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law enacted by President Barack Obama.
“It’s a little bit confusing,” Cramer campaign communications director Tim Rasmussen told the Washington Examiner in an email. “When you compare voting records, Kevin clearly represents a true conservative path on tax reform, energy regulation and health care.”
The Koch network announced during its January donor conference that associated groups were prepared to invest nearly $400 million to help the Republican Party withstand a feared Democratic wave. Americans for Prosperity is the tip of the spear, with major advertising planned and grassroots affiliates in key battlegrounds hitting the pavement to push Republicans across the finish line.
So, it raised eyebrows when AFP spent an undisclosed sum, in the thick of a crucial Senate campaign, to boost a Democratic incumbent’s image in a battleground that Senate Republicans are targeting to pad their thin, 51-49 majority. “Thank you Sen. Heitkamp for giving Main Street relief,” reads the spot.
Heitkamp faces a steep climb to re-election in a red state overwhelmingly supportive of President Trump, and a love-note like this from AFP, a marquee conservative advocacy organization, is the sort of stamp of approval the Democrat needs to prove her bipartisan bona fides and survive in November.
Heitkamp’s campaign was quick to tout the ad as more evidence of her willingness to buck Democratic leaders and work with the president, who personally recruited her Republican challenger into the race against her.
“Heidi got results for rural North Dakota families and businesses who depend on relationship lending because she is and has always been focused on putting partisan politics aside to deliver for North Dakotans,” Heitkamp campaign spokeswoman Julia Krieger said.
Heitkamp broke with the liberal wing of her party to support Republican legislation to relax regulations on community banks implemented in the way of the 2008 financial crisis. The bill was a priority for Trump, and Heitkamp’s support came amid her votes to confirm the president’s nominees to lead the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The Cramer campaign is frustrated, anxious that Heitkamp’s support for the banking bill (and other votes) is overshadowing her opposition of conservative priorities, such as repealing Obamacare and the $1.3 trillion tax overhaul signed into law by Trump in December. Indeed, Americans for Prosperity aired attack ads earlier this year rapping the senator for opposing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Coming on the heels of Cramer’s concerns that Trump isn’t doing enough to boost his Senate bid, the worry is that AFP could contribute to the rehabilitation of Heitkamp’s political standing. In recent public opinion polls, the Democrat’s approval ratings were barely treading water, while internal Cramer surveys showed her down by as much as 6 percentage points.
“The banking reform bill, supported by Kevin, is a modest step in the right direction,” Rasmussen said, downplaying the significance of the legislation. “The House has passed over 40 separate pieces of banking reform bills which are being held hostage by Senate Democrats unwilling to roll back the onerous job-killing impacts of Dodd-Frank.”
The stakes in the North Dakota Senate race, and other pivotal midterm campaigns, are hardly lost on top Koch network officials, especially the experienced political operatives running Americans for Prosperity. With that in mind, AFP’s decision to weigh in for Heitkamp’s campaign at this stage could be a interpreted as a shot across the bow at Cramer and other Republicans on the 2018 ballot.
Americans for Prosperity has not yet determined if it will provide Cramer with material support in the campaign. The message to him and others could be that it has moved away from the man-the-GOP-barricades posture it held five months ago, and now expects more results in exchange for assistance — even if that means boosting Democrats in the process.
James Davis, a senior Koch network official and AFP advisor, said as much in a subtly-worded op-ed published at CNN.com in late April. Tim Phillips, president of AFP, offered similar warnings in a statement released to unveil the ads thanking Heitkamp for supporting the overhaul of Dodd-Frank.
“AFP is committed to working with lawmakers – regardless of party- to advance common sense reforms that help people improve their lives,” Phillips said. “This was a bipartisan effort made possible by lawmakers like Heidi Heitkamp who put politics aside to work together. While we don’t agree with Sen. Heitkamp on everything, particularly her vote against tax relief, we commend her for taking a stand against the leaders of her party to do the right thing.”
