Heidi Heitkamp’s Latest Campaign Ad Targets Farmers Caught in Trump’s Trade War

It claims her opponent “doesn’t get” North Dakota’s agricultural community.

The race for North Dakota’s open senate seat has been called “nasty” by several news outlets, and for good reason: In their ads, the candidates don’t mince words about their opponents. In one, North Dakota representative Kevin Cramer calls the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, “an enemy of our country.” Heitkamp’s newest ad, meanwhile, makes the case that Cramer just “doesn’t get” the state’s many farmers.

In a sparsely populated state with an even lower expected voter turnout rate, Heitkamp and Cramer are fighting for votes. They must appeal to a largely agricultural community grappling with President Donald Trump’s decision to levy a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports and another 25 percent tariff on an additional $16 billion worth of goods. China quickly retaliated with counter-tariffs on American agricultural products, including soy. That’s a major concern among North Dakota’s many soybean farmers.

The new Heitkamp ad calls Cramer out for supporting the tarrifs—and features farmers who don’t appreciate his rhetoric about their ability to weather hardship and emerge from the tariff war unscathed. “When you hear Kevin Cramer talk about why he supports the trade war, he criticizes farmers,” says Charles Linderman, a North Dakota soybean farmer featured in the ad. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT7ARv9W7U0

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate