President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Pence will be meeting tomorrow with North Dakota’s moderate Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. Although she has been shrugged off the notion that she’s being considered for a cabinet post, it’s hard to take seriously the idea that the discussion will be about anything else. What’s more, the fact that she hasn’t already ruled out taking a cabinet position makes it seem quite possible she would accept one if it is offered.
Heitkamp is one of several Democrats facing re-election in 2018 in a very Republican state that Trump carried by a very large margin. (Along with North Dakota, Republicans’ prime 2018 targets will be Montana, Indiana, West Virginia, and Missouri.) She won in 2012 by just one point against a weak Republican opponent.
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A stint as the designated Democrat in the Trump administration — either at the Department of Energy or Agriculture, both key to her state’s economy — would set her up much better to run for governor (she ran in 2000, unsuccessfully) than if she loses for Senate in 2018. What’s more, her views in both issue areas appear to align with Trump’s.
Were she to take a job from Trump, her Senate seat would not be an automatic pickup for Republicans. A special election would ensue, not a gubernatorial appointment, thanks to a law passed in 2015.
Democrats would at least have a chance if one of their retired Democratic senators — Byron Dorgan (now a lobbyist, age 74) or Kent Conrad (age 68, now at a think tank) — threw his hat in the ring. Barring that, it’s hard to imagine another Democrat succeeding her. Trump may thus be able to help Mitch McConnell add one more seat to his majority before the first shot is even fired in the coming midterms.
