A new poll shows that Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) now has a staggering 16-point lead over incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) in North Dakota’s Senate race.
According to a recent poll conducted by KVLY, KFYR, and Strategic Research Associates, Cramer leads Heitkamp 56 percent to 40 percent among likely voters. Of those voters, just 37 percent have a favorable opinion of the incumbent, compared to 53 percent who view the Republican favorably.
The number of voters who view Heitkamp unfavorably has increased from 41 percent to 52 percent since September—before she voted against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Senator Heitkamp appears to have been hurt by her vote against Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court as well as subsequent campaign missteps widely covered in the media,” Strategic Research Associates Partner James Henson commented. According to the poll, North Dakota voters ranked Kavanaugh’s nomination the fourth most important issue heading into the midterms.
Among Heitkamp’s “missteps” was her recent outing of numerous sexual-assault victims without their consent in an open letter to her Republican opponent. Heitkamp published the letter in an effort to paint Cramer as unsympathetic to the concerns of 120 victims who signed the letter, though many of them did not grant Heitkamp permission to print their names.
As a result, Heitkamp admitted that she “pretty much” suspended her campaign in order to “deal with” the fallout of the scandal.
“I think I pretty much did. We pretty much went into full-on let’s deal with this. So a number of campaign activities were canceled as a result of this,” she said during a recent interview.
.@SenatorHeitkamp still has not talked to several of the sexual assault survivors she outed w/out their consent. I asked @HeidiHeitkamp if she had considered "suspending her campaign" to get to the bottom of what happened to these victims. WATCHT 2night 6:30p KX4 #NDSen pic.twitter.com/C3IrvS8T0t
— Chris Berg (@chrisbergpov) October 22, 2018
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
