Former Democratic Candidates Say They Don’t Mind Cramer Paying Family to Work for His Campaign

North Dakota Democrats and their various media mouthpieces have been making an enormous stink about Congressman Kevin Cramer paying members of his family to work for his campaign.

The intense political attacks on Cramer were no doubt orchestrated to keep the Congressman out of a race challenging Senate incumbent Heidi Heitkamp this year. But even after Cramer announced he wasn’t running for the Senate the state Democratic party sent out a press release making it clear that they’re going to keep up the attack on Cramer over his family working for his campaign:

The odd thing is, some of the candidates who were on the statewide ballot for Democrats in recent cycles have said publicly that they don’t see a problem with Cramer’s family working for his campaign even as their political party works itself into a lather over it.

I posted a question on Facebook recently asking if Cramer’s campaign staffing decisions upset people:

Among those answering the question was state Rep. Marvin Nelson of Rolla who was the gubernatorial candidate for the Democrats last cycle:

Nelson, as I pointed out earlier this week, actually employed his own son-in-law in his 2016 campaign.

Tracy Potter, who served as a Democrat in the state Senate for four years starting in 2006 and then ran for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2010, also said he didn’t have a problem with Cramer paying family with campaign funds:

Again Democrats and their media surrogates want us to be outraged over Cramer paying family to work for his campaign, but their gubernatorial candidate last cycle had a family member working as his campaign manager and two prominent Democrats who have served in the Legislature and campaigned for statewide office for Democrats are now saying publicly that they have no problem with it.

Talk about a rhetorical backfire.