North Dakota Senate Debate Recap: Kevin Cramer struggles to defend his donors

“Yeah, I take money from all kinds of interests”

On Friday, in the most unlikely of places, Katrina Christiansen may have scored her greatest campaign win to date.  Last week Katrina was invited on to the Plain Talk Podcast for a debate with her opponent, Kevin Cramer. Plain Talk is a fairly right leaning political podcast hosted by controversial community figure Rob Port. Two years ago Rob was an overt critic of Katrina’s political chances, but this time around he seems to have come around on her, praising her campaign fundraising and her appeal to compromise politics, painting herself as a North Dakotan first and foremost.

Katrina and her opponent, Kevin Cramer, went back and forth for about an hour, starting with how they would tackle partisan politics. Kevin Cramer just made news for voting down a bipartisan border bill that would have solved a lot of problems for border patrol workers.

Cramer: “I think one of the greatest disappointments for me in the congress, is that so many people in the congress use all of their political capital every day. Which means they don’t store any up, which means they don’t do a lot of favors for other people, they’re not very transactional, they get on primetime Fox News a lot, but they don’t pass legislation.”

Cramer would later go on to brag about being on various shows on Fox News. He also has received a lot of flak for passing only one piece of legislation in his 6 years in office– a bill that renamed a building.

Katrina: “When I’m in the United States Senate, I’m representing independents, I’m representing Republicans, and Democrats. I’ll be representing North Dakota values, and that means listening to people where they are.”

Here Katrina refers to her every county, every vote project, where she has already visited nearly every county in North Dakota to talk to voters directly about what they need from her when she gets to the Senate.

Katrina: “There was a really great opportunity to practice bipartisanship this year with the border bill, which I would have signed… 1 out of 3 people I talk to in North Dakota talks about the border, and we need someone in the Senate who’s willing to do that work and be bipartisan, truly.”

When asked why he voted against the bipartisan bill, Cramer responded:

Cramer: “There was one thing in there that was just impossible for me to get over, and that is that they increased money specifically for sanctuary cities. The very idea that we would roll out the welcome-mat for violent criminals… I just couldn’t go there.”

Later, when asked about how they would handle the debt crisis, Cramer hinted at some “difficult sacrifices” that would have to be made. Katrina jumped on this:

Katrina: “I guess I’d like to ask Senator Cramer what cuts he’d like to have? He talks about the current administration, but the previous administration had the debt increase over 7 trillion dollars. Since Senator Cramer has been in office, the debt has increased 10 trillion dollars… The reality is, a lot of career politicians don’t really want to do the hard work of balancing the budget while also balancing social security and medicare.”

Cramer refused to give an answer to what cuts to spending he would propose during the interview. It’s clear why: he has an abhorrent record on social security. During his time in office he has suggested raising the retirement age, lowering benefits for people currently under 50 years of age, means testing, and the privatization of social security.

Later, when asked about why we don’t have a farm bill, Kevin Cramer outlined a clear laundry list of everyone at fault for the lateness of his work. Katrina shot back:

Katrina: “You know, I have given Kevin Cramer a lot of credit as I have been traveling around the state the last ten months. He’s really good at identifying problems and assigning blame. And I think it’s pretty obvious that that’s where his job stops… Agriculture Is North Dakota’s second largest industry. Our farmers, our ranchers, are [losing] out on future earnings. That’s the reality that we’re  living in right now. They’re getting screwed, and career politicians are just like “well, we can’t figure it out.”

Cramer: “Oh, we figured it out. The Republican bill in the senate raises reference prices. It literally raises reference prices… It’s Debbie Stabenow and the Democrats [who are at fault]. It’s not my fault it’s their fault, but that’s where the fault lies… She wants to get more money into conservation programs so she can deal with the existential threat of climate change… By the way, agriculture is the number one economic engine in North Dakota, it’s not the second, it’s the first.”

It is, in fact, the second: 

Source: IBISworld.com

Cramer: “I’m sorry, you’re right, I am good at laying the blame because I know where the blame belongs–

Katrina: “I know, I know–”

Cramer: “Listen to me! Interest rates are a result of inflation! Inflation is a result of Democratic policies from the current Senate and the current president… Do I lay the blame where it belongs? You’re darn right I lay the blame where it belongs.”

It’s often the women in these debates who take criticism for getting too emotional, but it seems Kevin had his feathers ruffled here.

Near the end of the debate Katrina pointed out that not everyone loses when inflation takes hold of the economy:

Katrina: “... the reality is that the meatpackers, the major food processing companies and the banks are the winners when it comes to this inflationary environment. Senator Cramer, you've taken corporate PAC money from Goldman Sachs! I don't know if you're accountable to North Dakotans or the banks who really like higher interest rates.”

Cramer: “I take money from all kinds of interests that are in the value chain. The banks don’t win on high inflation, I don’t know where you get that idea…”

He then went on to identify many small donors to his campaign from local North Dakota businesses while neglecting donations from: Verizon, AT&T, Exxon Mobil, Tesoro Corp, Oasis Petroleum, Northrop Grumman, Time Warner, Boeing, Koch Industries, Comcast, Monsanto, and hundreds more.

Cramer: “You’re trying to run as a Democrat, as an independent! Chuck Schumer will be the majority leader if Democrats have the majority in the next congress. It doesn’t matter how independent you are if Chuck Schumer is the majority leader.”

This final statement really reflects the biggest problem with politics not just in North Dakota, but across the country. Career politicians are incapable of processing a woman who is running to represent her home, not her team. For Cramer, politics have always been about us versus them, but what Katrina is proposing is a way of governing that’s of the people, by the people, and for the people. His floundering here at the end shows that Republicans are not ready for this future. Let’s do the work to get him out of the way so we can see some real progress and soon.

Thank you for everything,

Katrina