Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The opening on the Supreme Court has created a dilemma for Democratic senators up for re-election this year in the states that President Donald Trump won in 2016. The choice on whether to support the upcoming nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy will be a test for several Democrats in tough races. It could be particularly difficult for Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and West Virginia's Joe Manchin.

Heads up! President Trump going to Fargo, North Dakota for another rally tonight.

One question before the Supreme Court this term was a big one: As technology evolves, how do our laws governing commerce evolve with it? The answer, issued in the ruling held in a 5-4 decision on Thursday, is a bad one for taxpayers. Many proponents of an online sales tax have argued that we must completely revisit what we know about interstate commerce, and create illusory tax regimes to contemplate a brave new order of online transactions. In reality, none of this is true. For one, while it has been 26 years since the Supreme Court visited the issue in...

Mason Dixon poll... 6/13-6/15 625 likely voters

Last Friday the Dakota Access Pipeline celebrated one year in operation. We’re a long way from the battles between “water protectors” and police that seemed to preoccupy the media for so many months. From Forbes: DAPL has been quietly transferring crude oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota at a rate of over 500,000 barrels per day. That has helped bolster North Dakota’s daily production numbers. According to the North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources, North Dakota production hit 1.16 million barrels per day in March, thanks in large to part to DAPL…The Dakota Access Pipeline’s safety record...

The North Dakota senate seat currently held by Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp is one of the targeted seats Republicans are looking to take in the 2018 mid-terms. To flip the seat the White House helped convince Republican Kevin Cramer to challenge Heitkamp. With the North Dakota election considered a ‘toss up‘, between Heitkamp and challenger Cramer; and with election outcome looking positive toward republicans; the UniParty quickly jumps into action. Notorious UniParty control agents David and Charles Koch, aka ‘The Koch Brothers’, now begin spending money to help Heitkamp retain her seat.

Military officials have reportedly ordered a command-wide inventory and investigation after a box of grenades and a machine gun from an Air Force base in North Dakota went missing. CNN reported Friday that the inventory will seek to account for grenades, small arms, machine guns, rifles and pistols at eight bases under the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). The AFGSC did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment about the reported inventory. At the same time, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have been called to examine the matter, CNN reported....

.Hillary Clinton lost North Dakota, the same state that elected Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp four years earlier, by a resounding 36-point margin. That's created something of a vulnerability for Heitkamp, who's confronting the same problem as Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, another vulnerable Trump Country Democratic incumbent fighting to keep her seat in November: she enthusiastically endorsed Clinton. McCaskill's connection to the unpopular Democratic nominee has already been exploited by her likely Republican opponent, state Attorney General Josh Hawley. Hawley seized on McCaskill's Clinton ties after the former secretary of state disparaged states that voted for President Trump in a March...

The U.S. Air Force lost a box of grenade rounds in northwest North Dakota that fell off a Humvee earlier this month, and now is seeking the public’s help in locating the explosives. A 91st Missile Wing Security Forces team from the Minot Air Force Base lost the ammunition container on May 1 while traveling between missile sites in Mountrail County, according to a news release the Air Force issued late Friday. The team was traveling on rough gravel roads about four miles west of Parshall when the back hatch of the vehicle opened, and an ammunition container fell out,...

Sen. Dean Heller is the only Republican running for re-election in a state Hillary Clinton won in 2016. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo) Senate Democrats are still defending 10 states that President Donald Trump won in 2016, but six months out from Election Day, the most vulnerable senator remains a Republican. Nevada Sen. Dean Heller no longer faces a primary threat, but he’s the only Republican up for re-election in a state Hillary Clinton won, and in this national environment that’s a tricky place to be. The Democrats’ odds of flipping a few GOP-held open seats in Arizona and...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Monday that he will vote for CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of State, making him the second Democrat to support Pompeo's nomination. "After meeting with Mike Pompeo, discussing his foreign policy perspectives, & considering his distinguished time as CIA Director & his exemplary career in public service, I will vote to confirm Mike Pompeo to be our next Secretary of State," Manchin said in a tweet. Pompeo likely already had the votes to be confirmed by the full Senate. With Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expected to oppose him, Pompeo needed...

When the news broke on Tuesday night that CIA Director Mike Pompeo had met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, I was not surprised. Pompeo had long ago established his importance to this administration and his understanding of geopolitics. Pompeo’s skills are precisely why the president nominated him to be the next Secretary of State—and why it’s so absurd that Democrats are reluctant to confirm him.Considering the increasing gridlock in the Senate over President Donald Trump’s nominees, this is a good time to remind our Democratic friends of Pompeo’s many qualifications—qualifications that have only increased since he earned Democratic support to become CIA...

On paper, of the juiciest targets was North Dakota's Heidi Heitkamp. Donald Trump carried her state by a 63-27 margin in 2016, and Heitkamp has done Chuck Schumer's bidding on some big votes, from Obamacare to tax reform (about which she lied), to judicial nominations. Nevertheless, senior Republicans I spoke to in recent months were nervous about the lack of a formidable challenger to take her down. That all changed a few weeks ago, however: ...... I'd heard consistent reports from GOP sources that if Cramer decided to get into the race, he'd enter the contest in a strong polling...

BISMARCK, N.D. - The first of what is expected to be many polls looking at the U.S. Senate candidates for North Dakota was released Tuesday, showing incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., with a narrow lead over Rep. Kevin Cramer, R, N.D. Heitkamp leads Cramer 43 to 40 with 17 percent of voters still undecided, which is unsurprising as the election is still months away. The poll was conducted online by Gravis Marketing with 385 respondents and a margin of error of 5 percentage points. Heitkamp trails among Trump supporters by a wide margin but has a lead among white voters....

appears that Republican At-Large U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer might have just been playing hard to get when he announced in January that he would not challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in November. Today, he has reversed himself, putting the race into the Toss Up column.

A new interview with Mitch McConnell this week showed the first cracks in the wall of his optimism about the midterms. While not going down a path of gloom and doom, he no longer sounds positive of breaking a long-standing trend of the party in power losing ground in such scenarios. He’s not coming out and saying the GOP’s majorities in both chambers are toast, but he seems to think they’ll be losing seats. (The Hill) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says in a new interview that he expects to see GOP majorities in the House and Senate shrink...

Rep. Kevin Cramer has signaled to confidants that he will reverse course and run against Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., in what promises to be one of the nation's most hotly contested Senate elections, two GOP sources familiar with his plans told NBC News. Cramer, the state's lone House member and a close ally of President Donald Trump, has long been considered the blue-chip recruit for Republican. He announced in January that he wouldn't challenge Heitkamp, but White House officials, party leaders and Cramer's home-state supporters continued to pressure him to jump in. One of the other two candidates in the...

Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) will challenge Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), according to a GOP candidate who announced on Tuesday that he’s dropping out of the North Dakota Senate race. Gary Emineth, a former state GOP party chairman, sent an email to supporters that he’s withdrawing from the Senate race, citing Cramer’s entry. But Cramer, who passed on a high-profile Senate bid last month, has yet to officially announce his plans. He told a regional news service Friday that he’s “mildly reconsidering” the race, amid reports that GOP leaders are urging him to take on Heitkamp.

On Oct. 11, 2016, Michael Foster and two companions rose before dawn, left their budget hotel in Grand Forks, N.D., and drove a white rental sedan toward the Canadian border, diligently minding the speed limit. As the driver, Sam Jessup, and a documentary filmmaker, Deia Schlosberg, recorded events from the back seat. For months, he’d imagined his next actions: He would snip the padlock that secured the gate and approach the blunt length of vertical pipe in the center of the enclosure — the stem of a shut-off valve for the 2,700-mile-long Keystone Pipeline. What neither the sheriff’s department nor...

One of the country's largest pro-life groups has launched a campaign targeting Red State Democratic senators who helped kill legislation that would have cut down late term abortions.The Susan B. Anthony List, a group that supports pro-life politicians, has launched a digital campaign tying Democratic senators facing re-election in states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016 to support for late term abortions. On Monday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.), Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D., N.D.), and Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mt.) voted to block a 20-week abortion ban, while Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) and...