Print Column: Heitkamp Drags North Dakota Through the Mud to the Finish Line

Those of us who have been victims of the incumbent’s ruthless tactics are perhaps more aware of it than most.

Earlier this year, when it became clear my criticism was inconvenient for Heitkamp’s re-election chances, her brother took to his radio show to talk about my divorce.

When WWII veteran Lynn Aas objected to Heitkamp using the story of his service, and the Legion of Honor award it merited from France, to credit her own record on veteran issues a spokesperson for the Senator attacked him for engaging in “gutter politics.”

Last month around two dozen women found themselves victims of Heitkamp’s deep thirst for power when they were named as sexual assault survivors in a print ad for the incumbent without their permission. Some of these women felt endangered, worried their abusers might be able to locate them. Others had friends and family learn about their assault for the first time by reading about it in the newspaper. Still, others weren’t sexual assault survivors at all.

When some of these women took to social media with objections about the ad one Mary Rennich, a Heitkamp campaign surrogate who has appeared in ads for the senator, called them“idiots.”

Now in the closing days of the election Heitkamp, behind in the polls and desperate for momentum, is dragging her entire state through the mud.