First things first, Heitkamp needs help. This is the toughest races for an incumbent Democratic senator this year. If you can volunteer, please do, the campaign is making a big GotV phone-banking effort in the final weeks. If not, please donate.
Democrats’ chance to take the Senate comes down to Heitkamp’s race. It’s the most important Senate race there is.
Heitkamp’s a reliable ally on a lot of issues, and not so reliable on others. She was great on Kavanaugh. But this isn’t really about one or two issues. It’s about control of the senate, control of the gavels. That’s what it’s about.
If any additional motivation is necessary, her opponent Kevin Cramer is a piece of work. He said that women coming forward to publicly discuss their assaults are part of a “movement toward victimization”, and invoked his wife, daughters, mother and mother-in-law.
Heitkamp spoke with a reporter one she heard what Cramer had said:
“I think it’s wonderful that his wife has never had an experience, and good for her, and it’s wonderful his mom hasn’t,” she said. “My mom did. And I think it affected my mom her whole life. And it didn’t make her less strong.”
With tears welling in her eyes, Ms. Heitkamp stared intently at a reporter and continued: “And I want you to put this in there, it did not make my mom less strong that she was a victim. She got stronger and she made us strong. And to suggest that this movement doesn’t make women strong and stronger is really unfortunate.”
Ms. Heitkamp’s mother, Doreen, died in April at 88 on what would have been her 66th wedding anniversary. The senator said her mother was sexually assaulted as a teenager. [...]
“Ray and Doreen Heitkamp didn’t raise me to vote a certain way so that I could win, they raised me to vote the right way,” she said.
— www.nytimes.com/...
So not only do we need this seat, Heidi is someone we should be working to protect.
In 2012, when Obama was on the ballot, Heitkamp won by a margin of 3,000 votes.
— @subirgrewal
There are the 14 Senate races that are close or where the seat is currently held by a Republican along with their current 538 and Cook political rating. You can donate to all 14 of these Senate candidates here. You can also use the same link to allocate different amounts to all or any one of the candidates.
They are all worthy of attention because we need a 50 state strategy to show people who’re victims of country club Republicans that we will fight for them.
The Gavels is about gaining control of the Senate and its committees. Prior diaries are on David Baria (MS), Jenny Wilson (UT), Jane Raybould (NE), Gary Trauner (WY).