James Kerian: Cramer vs Heitkamp Race Gives North Dakotans Their Best Ever Chance to Make a National Difference

This guest post was submitted by James Kerian of Grafton, North Dakota.

Those of us in North Dakota who follow politics closely are often a little envious of the attention given to the voters of other states. You might sometimes wish you were a voter in Iowa or New Hampshire where they play an outsized role in picking the presidential nominee for both the Republican and Democrat party. Perhaps you have wished you could vote in Florida or Ohio since those two perennial swing-states often determine which of those two nominees will serve as president. Out here in North Dakota (with our late primaries, our measly three electoral votes and a predictable trend of having given those three electoral votes to the Republican nominee for president) it can often seem that compared to the voters in these other states we have become just an afterthought. This year, however, North Dakota is front and center in the national political stage.

[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]…with the US Senate as sharply divided as it is this seat could very well determine national policy on a wide range of national issues…[/mks_pullquote]

In the coming months a couple hundred thousand North Dakota voters will determine whether Mary Kathryn “Heidi” Heitkamp or Kevin Cramer will serve the next term as the U.S. Senator from North Dakota. The race pits Heitkamp’s opposition to tax cuts, her support for the Democrat’s judicial filibuster, her support for late-term abortion, her opposition to the 2nd Amendment and her support for “sanctuary cities” against Cramer’s support for tax cuts, support for Trump’s judicial nominees, support for the right to life, support for the 2nd Amendment and his support for upholding our immigration laws.

This race has consistently polled as a toss-up and with the US Senate as sharply divided as it is this seat could very well determine national policy on a wide range of national issues like those listed above and even the types of international treaties into which the United States will enter.

This election season has already brought the President to North Dakota to lead a rally for Kevin Cramer and the Vice-President has come twice in support of Cramer’s campaign. This election season you will see and hear more ads than you have ever seen and heard before. The reason for this is quite simply that in living memory a North Dakotan’s vote has never been so valuable in terms of influencing national policy.

This is the best opportunity that North Dakotans have had (perhaps the best opportunity we will ever have) to make a decisive difference on the national level. If you were ever going to donate to a campaign, this would be the one to donate to. If you were ever going to make phone calls in support of a candidate, this would be the time to make those phone calls. If you were ever going to place a sign for a campaign in your yard, this would be the year to place that yard sign. Far too many Americans follow politics and then treat it like a spectator sport. If there was ever a time for North Dakotans to get involved, it’s now.