, Columnist
A Democrat Tiptoes Through Trumpworld
Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota is one of five Democratic senators facing re-election in bright red states.
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Like North Dakota’s whooping cranes and black-footed ferrets, Heidi Heitkamp is part of an endangered species. Less than two years from now, the first-term Democratic senator will be running for re-election in a state where Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 36 percentage points. Even for a centrist as popular as Heitkamp, that’s a mountain to climb.
Some of the reasons for Trump’s lopsided victory in North Dakota are peculiar to him, but others can also be laid at the feet of the Democratic Party. Democratic presidential candidates make little effort to appeal to rural voters, who make up most of North Dakota’s population and who care less about transgender bathrooms or Katy Perry than about growing things and guns.