Podcast: Potential Senate Candidate Gary Emineth Says Heitkamp Is “Very Beatable”
Owner Gary Emineth talks about how customers will order either their burgers or burritos Thursday at Padrón Chile in Grand Forks. Photo by Tim Albrecht/Grand Forks Herald
“She’s very beatable.”
That’s what former NDGOP chairman Gary Emineth told me about Democratic Senate incumbent Heidi Heitkamp today.
I broke the news yesterday that Emineth is considering a run for the Senate. Today he joined me on my radio show to talk about it (full audio of today’s show is below, subscribe to the podcast here).
[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]”I’ll be a stronger, more conservative candidate,” Emineth said.[/mks_pullquote]
I asked Emineth about Republican state Senator Tom Campbell who has already had his own Senate campaign up and running for months. “He’s at second base and I’m looking for a bat,” Emineth told me, but added that he’d be the better choice to challenge Heitkamp.
“I’m not sure Tom will be as aggressive as I will be,” he told me. Emineth also suggested that, despite Campbell branding himself as a “conservative farmer” in his marketing materials, his voting record in the Legislature tells a different story.
“I’ll be a stronger, more conservative candidate,” Emineth said.
Campbell has worked hard to align his campaign closely to President Donald Trump, and Emineth also touts himself as a Trump supporter. “I was one of the very first Trump supporters as a delegate from North Dakota,” Emineth said, referring to his service as a representative for the NDGOP at the Republican National Convention, though he did add that he gets “nervous over [Trump’s] fingers on the Twitter button.”
Heitkamp already has millions (mostly from out of state) in her campaign coffers. Emineth said he can raise “plenty of money” to take on the incumbent, but added that the campaign will be hard.
He said he expects Heitkamp to run a “tough, nasty, rough” campaign.
Emineth told me during the interview that he’ll be deciding on a campaign with in the next week. Based on the way he was talking today, it sure sounds like he’s in.
Congressman Kevin Cramer also joined for his weekly open phones segment.
Here’s the full audio from today’s show. You can get the audio delivered to your devices daily by subscribing to the podcast.
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