Tipsheet

See Ya, Heidi: GOP Picks Up North Dakota Senate Seat

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  November 06, 2018 10:40 PM

It’s official. North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp will have to update her resume come January. She’s been voted out of office—and it wasn’t even close. Heitkamp clinched a win in 2012, but with fewer than 3,000 votes. In 2018, she’s going to lose by nearly 20 points. With 54 percent reporting, Cramer is leading Heitkamp 58/41.

It was already unfriendly territory for Heitkamp. Trump carried her state, it’s already a deep red state, and she committed a major blunder in the closing days of her campaign. She outed scores of sexual assault victims without their permission in an open letter ad against Cramer, who made some controversial remarks at the height of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation battle. Kavanaugh proved to be a major event in the 2018 cycle, as the judge was engulfed by unsubstantiated and baseless sexual misconduct allegations. He was eventually confirmed to the Supreme Court. 

Heitkamp’s “no” vote probably impacted her re-election chances, but the open letter blunder was not easily forgiven. To make things worse, some of the women named weren’t even victims of sexual assault.  Yes, she apologized, but the damage was done—and it was done at a time where her campaign really couldn’t do much to remedy the situation. Politico’s Rachael Bade said that she would pay a price for this error. And that was booting her from her Senate seat.