Gloves come off in Heitkamp-Cramer debate
By John Hageman
Forum News Service
Taking the debate stage for the first time against her Republican opponent Rep. Kevin Cramer on Thursday, Oct. 18, North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp again apologized for mistakenly identifying women as domestic violence and sexual assault victims in a newspaper ad.
Heitkamp addressed the incident that rocked her campaign three weeks before Election Day in her opening statements at a debate in Bismarck sponsored by the North Dakota Newspaper Association, calling it a horrible error.
“Now I have an obligation to redouble my efforts, to regain the support and regain the trust of North Dakota citizens and hopefully their votes,” she told a crowd of about 200 people.
From there, the candidates sparred on a wide range of issues that have sprouted up during one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races, including trade, health care, immigration, voter identification laws, the #MeToo movement and Social Security.
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