This Is Why North Dakota Will Go To Donald Trump In 2016
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks as (L-R) his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his daughter Ivanka, his son Eric, Eric's wife Lara Yunaska and Trump's wife Melania look on, during a campaign victory party after rival candidate Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination following the results of the Indiana state primary, at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 3, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Before and after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump visited the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck North Dakota’s Democrats were making a lot of political hay. Senate candidate Eliot Glassheim has called Trump’s rhetoric “offensive, inexcusable and even dangerous.”
“Donald Trump represents fear, ignorance, and hatred while demeaning women,” House candidate Chase Iron eyes has said.
The state party has accused Trump of being a racist and a misogynist:
Donald Trump has propelled himself to leader of the Republican party by insulting women, veterans, minorities, and people with disabilities.
— ND Dem-NPL (@nddemnpl) May 26, 2016
To be sure, there’s a lot to dislike about Trump. I’m not going to defend the man. But he’s going to win North Dakota’s electoral votes, handily, and this sort of thing from the Democratic alternatives to Trump is why:
Days ahead of California’s June 7 primary, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders continued to fight to end fracking, and vows, if elected, to end the process across the United States entirely.
“If elected president, we will not need state by state, county by county action, because we are going to ban fracking in 50 states of this country,” Sanders said.
Hillary Clinton, Sanders’ opponent, has also called for a de facto ban on fracking. “By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place,” she has said.
There are a lot of Republicans in North Dakota who are deeply uncomfortable with Donald Trump as their candidate. I suspect many of them share some of the same opinions of Trump that Democrats have.
But those are objections to style, not necessarily substance. I think many North Dakotans are willing to put up with Trump’s abrasive, bombastic, and churlish approach to politics if it means he’ll leave alone the means by which the state prospers.
Trump may be distasteful, but Democratic leadership at the national level would be flat-out bad for North Dakota’s continued prosperity.
Whose fault is it that Democrats can’t offer up a better alternative to Trump than Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton?
