Why is Heidi Heitkamp voting against Kavanaugh?

She is the most vulnerable Democratic senator who stands for re-election in November, if not the most vulnerable senator on the ballot in 2018. Her race, in a presidential state won by 36 points, is zero for the first time. argument that the drama surrounding Brett M Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court could actually help Republicans to retain control of the Senate.

And yet, Senator Heitkamp (D-N.D.) Vote againstKavanaugh for the Supreme Court, a decision that undermines the margin of error of Republicans to confirm Kavanaugh. This is despite a local poll after Kavanaugh was charged with sexual assault and 60% of voters in North Dakota want it confirmed.

So is Heitkamp voting against his own political interests or is there another political calculation here? Here is an overview of why Heitkamp decided to reverse the misconceptions and vote against the Trump Supreme Court Judge.

Kavanaugh's partisanship in his defense of allegations of sexual misconduct was too much: If you analyze his official statement, the fact that Kavanaugh opposed the Democrats is the number one reason why Heitkamp voted against him. He is no longer fit to sit on the Supreme Court after that, it seems. "… [L]Thursday's hearing questioned Justice Kavanaugh's current temper, honesty and impartiality, she said. These are crucial avenues for any candidate to sit in the highest court of our country.

She makes a direct comparison to Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, for whom she voted for last year and which she said was not so ideological. North Dakota is a state where an explosion like that of Kavanaugh rubs people upside down, say Democratic agents.

She sees an opening to make her Republican opponent look bad: Heitkamp said that she had heard "countless" women from all over the state who had shared stories in the image of the one that Christine Blasey Ford had told about the involvement of Kavanaugh. His office said the North Dakota residents' awareness had attracted 52 percent of Kavanaugh voters and 46 percent of his constituents.

She also mentioned that she was the State Attorney General, where she advocated for legislation protecting women from domestic violence and violence.

GOP representative Kevin Cramer recently asked if, even though Kavanaugh was trying to rape Ford while he was crying out in high school, he should be disqualified from the Supreme Court. Cramer also almost immediately said he would support Kavanaugh after Ford accused him, while Heitkamp said she was waiting for the FBI investigation to make his decision.

[The most problematic things politicians have said about the Kavanaugh nomination]

Cramer has been in the lead in most polls, and it really began to skyrocket around the time an NPR / PBS News Hour / Marist poll shows Republicans' national enthusiasm to vote to catch up with Democrats. The conventional wisdom was that Heitkamp had no choice but to vote for Kavanaugh on this backdrop.

But by voting against Kavanaugh, did Heitkamp find a way to pit Cramer against independent voters on an issue that everyone pays attention to? It's risky. But now, at least, she can broadcast ads attacking Cramer for what he said.

His campaign feels more comfortable than national polls suggest: Democratic activists in North Dakota and Washington, DC, warned all over the year against the idea of ​​losing Heitkamp because its state had been so heavy for Trump in 2016.

If she manages to keep the Democrat base motivated (what Kavanaugh's candidacy has helped to say on the part of Democratic insiders), and if she keeps some Trump voters who, like her, like him personally, Heitkamp could to win, they would theorize.

The Heitkamp campaign says polls show it's doing well in all the key areas of the state it needs to win.

She believes Ford: Shortly after launching the #MeToo movement last year, Heitkamp was one of four Senators to have agreed to participate in Meet The Press on NBC and talk about sexual harassment in and around their home. life. This is clearly a problem that is dear to her heart, and she pointed out in an interview given Thursday at WDAY in North Dakota:

"It's not a political decision. If it was a political decision for me, I would certainly do it in the other direction. But there is an old adage, history will judge you, but the most important thing is that you judge yourself. And that's really what I say. I can not get up in the morning to look at the experience of my life and say "yes" to Judge Kavanaugh. "