Luckily for all of us, there is no dearth of strong Democratic women running for the U.S. Senate this year. I truly think the difference between having Harry Reid or Mitch McConell as majority leader comes down to whether we have the backs of each of these remarkable women.
You know Tammy Baldwin and Elizabeth Warren and others. Let me introduce you to Heidi Heitkamp, Democratic-NPL candidate to retain the seat being vacated by retiring senator Kent Conrad in North Dakota.
Before I get into detail, you may want to read this excellent interview with Heidi about her experience and her values.
Heidi was an attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency in 1980 and 1981. Her populist leanings led her to join up with the most populist and progressive agency in North Dakota at the time, the state tax commissioner's office. You heard that right, the tax commissioner. Starting with Byron Dorgan, the tax commissioners of that time stood up for the people of North Dakota by aggressively going after major corporations. Kind of the reverse of the situation we find now at the federal level.
Dorgan had already moved on to congress when Heidi joined the tax commissioner's office as a staff attorney under commissioner Kent Conrad in 1981. When Conrad ran for the U.S. Senate and won in 1986, Heidi was appointed tax commissioner. (My favorite moment in Conrad's 1986 race was when Ronald Reagan came to Grand Forks to campaign for his opponent and loudly declared, "We don't need another tax commissioner in congress!" and ND subsequently said, "Yes, we do!") She subsequently ran for the position in 1988, and won with 66% of the vote, in a heavily Republican state.
Four years later, Heidi ran for state attorney general, and won with 62%, followed by reelection in 1996 with 64% of the vote. Did I mention North Dakota is heavily Republican?
During her tenure as AG, Heidi was one of the eight state attorneys general who Unegotiated the tobacco settlement.
In 2000, Heidi ran for governor against current Senator John Hoeven. In the middle of the campaign, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Many believe questions about her health and physical ability to meet the demands of the job contributed to her defeat by 10 points, not an unrealistic question given her record of racking up 60%+ in statewide races.
Although it's been twelve years since she's been in office, North Dakotans continue to hold Heidi in high esteem. Before the Republican super PACs started saturating North Dakota airwaves with anti-Heidi ads her internal polls showed her leading her Republican opponent by 5 points.
Now, after months of negative television ads, polls show Heidi, leading by one point.. Importantly, this poll shows Heidi leading among self-described independents by a margin of 55-36.
Folks, this race is winnable. The DSCC knows this, and this week announced a $1.2 million ad buy.. No doubt the Republican money machine will respond.
If you didn't click the link to the interview above, here is an excerpt, Heidi telling us why she runs:
I’ll tell you a story. One of the reasons I wanted to become attorney general was that I had a very personal experience with domestic violence. It wasn’t somebody I knew directly, but it was somebody that I had tried to help with a divorce. Her daughter ended up dying. Her husband shot her daughter and then shot her. And I just remember thinking what could I have done differently. How could the people she had asked for help, how could we have changed this outcome. And it really made me want to begin to expose this for what it was. At the time, domestic violence was considered a public health problem not a criminal justice problem.
So I went out and was giving a talk to a group of law enforcement officers, and most of them understood this. But there was one officer, not from North Dakota, but he said “Listen here, girly, men are always going to hit their wives and there’s nothing you can do to change it.” And I said “You know, you might be right – I hope not – but I’m not going to argue with you. But I know one thing: I can’t live in a world without trying.” And that’s my point. I’m not going to give up my belief that it can change because then I’m done. If we don’t think we can change governments for the better by getting good people involved, then we’re done. Then give it up.
Heidi is a fantastic candidate who can and will win in November. But she needs our help. Can you donate $10 or more to the
Kossacks for Heidi ActBlue page today?
The only way to defeat the Citizens United billionaires is to show them over and over that they are wasting their money, because we will work all that harder to elect Democrats anyway. Let's go get them and elect Heidi Heitkamp North Dakota's next U.S. Senator, the third in a distinguished list of former tax commissioners.