Rep. Kevin Cramer has a really interesting understanding of marriage and faithfulness.
The North Dakota Republican and current Senate candidate slammed opponent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp for bragging about voting with the president half the time. “I’ve heard her say, ‘Gee, I voted with him 55 percent of the time,'” Cramer told a local radio host Wednesday. “Can you imagine going home and telling your wife, ‘I’ve been faithful to you 55 percentof the time?’ Are you kidding me?”
But Trump can imagine. Perhaps Cramer can too. Palling around with the president, he is at risk of ignoring the farmers who have been some of the Republican Party’s most loyal supporters for decades.
Trump went to war over trade and Cramer cheered him on. “The President is right to stand up to China,” he wrote in a statement before expressing confidence that the White House would find “ways to lessen the serious, yet hopefully short term, negative effects, experienced by our agricultural producers.”
My statement on the proposed Chinese tariffs ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/wTtoMfCpUl
— Rep. Kevin Cramer (@RepKevinCramer) April 4, 2018
But if the White House has found ways to shelter red-state farmers, those guys with Trump bumper stickers on their trucks, they’ve been keeping it to themselves. On Thursday, China announced retaliatory tariffs on soybeans — a move that will disproportionately harm North Dakota.
Nicknamed the Peace Garden State, North Dakota boasts some of the best farmland in the world. One of their top crops: soybeans. The state produced 240 million bushels of soybeans last year, finishing eighth in national production. Without China, North Dakota will lose one of its most lucrative markets. And they’re not alone.
Eight of the 10 biggest soybean-producing states voted for Trump. In addition to North Dakota, two of them are home to incumbent Senate Democrats. The USDA estimates that within the decade, China will account for nearly 70 percent of U.S. soybean exports. Already markets are spooked, giving plenty of anti-tariff ammunition to Heitkamp in North Dakota along with Sens. Joe Donnelly in Indiana and Claire McCaskill in Missouri.
China’s new soybean tariff is aimed straight at Trump country. 8 of the top 10 soybean producing states were won by Trump in 2016. (chart by @AndyKiersz) https://t.co/7GIBkjwkKw pic.twitter.com/yxzCxjaYWr
— Bob Bryan (@RobertBryan4) April 4, 2018
Cramer should be furious about the president stumbling into a trade war and endangering that industry. If he is, he hasn’t shown it publicly.
Instead, Cramer is standing by his man. Whether or not Trump is actually standing by him is another question. The president doesn’t seem to be fighting for North Dakota farmers. Trump is trying instead to save steel jobs for union workers in blue states, voters who traditionally have no allegiance to the Republican Party. If prices continue to plummet on soybean futures, voters will be the ones wondering about Cramer’s faithfulness as they head to the polls.
