Kevin Cramer in 2018 ND Senate race

On Abortion: Abortion on demand for 40 years leads to school shootings

Kevin Cramer (R): Ban. "Forty years ago, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned abortion on demand. & we wonder why our culture sees school shootings so often."

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Mostly legal. "Reproductive decisions should be left to a woman, her family, & her doctor." But opposes public funding & supports state's right to mandate parental consent for minors & to restrict partial-birth abortions.

Q: Let Planned Parenthood receive public funds for non-abortion health care?

Kevin Cramer (R): No. Co-sponsored bill to defund.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. Voted against numerous bills aimed at defunding.

Q: Allow employers to withhold contraceptive coverage from employees if disagree with it morally?

Kevin Cramer (R): Yes. Requiring contraceptive coverage infringes upon religious freedoms.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): No. Keep ACA requirement that insurance plans provide non-copay contraception.

On Corporations: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is regulatory overreach

Kevin Cramer (R): Yes. Considered it regulatory overreach.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Eased financial regulations for smaller banks, but opposes further easing rules.

On Drugs: No recreational marijuana; opposes ND ballot measure 3

Kevin Cramer (R): No. Plans to vote against it: "We don't need any more mind-altering substances on the market."

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Up to voters, some concerns on access by children. Urged administration to respect North Dakota's medical law.

On Education: Supports vouchers and charter schools

Kevin Cramer (R): Yes. Supports DC voucher program & charter schools.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): No. Opposed Betsy DeVos's "preference for private schools and. taking public funds away from public schools."

On Education: End student loan interest deduction

Kevin Cramer (R): Rejected this approach. Favored tying to interest rates. Supported end to student loan interest deduction.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. Introduced related bill. Challenged Dept of Education possibly revoking public service loan forgiveness.

On Energy & Oil: Climate change is a religious belief

Kevin Cramer (R): No. Considered prominent skeptic. Has called climate change a religious belief.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. Voted for the amendment saying climate change was real & serious.

Q: Limit or tax production of greenhouse gases? Support US participation in Paris Climate Accord despite President Trump's withdrawal?

Cramer: No. Roll back automotive fuel standards. Called EPA greenhouse gas regulations "arbitrary & capricious." Paris Accord was a terrible agreement.

Heitkamp: Mixed. Criticized Obama Clean Power Act, pushed for carbon sequestration research so could keep using coal & gas. Supported Paris Accord participation.

Q: Renewable Energy: Support government subsidies for renewable energy?

Cramer: No. Incentivize US fuel production. Let green energy tax credits & deductions lapse.

Heitkamp: Advocates an all-of-the-above approach that includes tax incentives for renewables, particularly wind power.

On Families & Children: Marriage is defined in Scripture

Kevin Cramer (R): No. "Marriage is defined in Scripture." Supreme Court ruling was "another example of activist judges overstepping their authority."

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. "The federal government should no longer discriminate against. or interfere in personal, private, & intimate relationships."

On Free Trade: Tariffs on China are the one tool we have

Kevin Cramer (R): "I would prefer a more measured approach." But they are "the one tool [Trump] has," so support them & present a united front for negotiations.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): No. They "severely limit our ability to build the international support need to keep China in check." Retaliatory actions will hurt North Dakota.

On Government Reform: No disclosure of corporate campaign donations

Kevin Cramer (R): No. Disclose individual contributions, but "what other organizations, liberal & conservative, do to promote their beliefs is up to them."

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. Sponsored 2018 DISCLOSE Act. "North Dakotans deserve to know who's trying to influence our elections."

Q: Support Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited political donations from corporations & unions?

Kevin Cramer (R): Yes.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): No. Reverse by constitutional amendment. "Billionaires who couldn't pick out North Dakota on a map shouldn't have more" electoral sway "than hard-working North Dakotans."

On Health Care: ObamaCare is an insult to the Constitution & the conscience

Kevin Cramer (R): Full repeal. "An insult to the Constitution & the conscience." Would require covering patients with pre-existing conditions but let insurance companies charge more for them.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Support, but improve. "Everyone should have access to affordable, quality care," whatever pre-existing conditions. North Dakota families need the same quality care that helped her beat breast cancer.

On Immigration: DACA was unlawfully put together; send DREAMers home

Kevin Cramer (R): No. DACA was "unlawfully put together." Recipients must return to home country before applying for citizenship.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes, with conditions. Voted for several bills coupling with border security increase, & in one case with restrictions on legal immigration.

On Jobs: Reduce regulations instead of raising minimum wage

Kevin Cramer (R): No. Reducing regulations is a better way to improve job opportunities.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. Co-sponsored 2014 bill to raise to $10.10/hr.

On Social Security: Advocate for private sector options

Kevin Cramer (R): Yes. Advocate for private sector options.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): No. Opposes.

On Tax Reform: Trump tax cuts were best Christmas gift Washington can give

Kevin Cramer (R): Yes. They were "the best Christmas gift Washington [could] give."

Heidi Heitkamp (D): No. Will add $1.5 trillion to national debt & provide no real relief for middle-class families or small businesses.

On Technology: Opposed stimulus investment, except infrastructure

Kevin Cramer (R): No. Opposed stimulus investment. Some support for infrastructure.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. Supports strong infrastructure spending for areas like roads. But also concerns about the deficit, feels both parties have ducked the issue.

On Technology: End Net Neutrality; don't require equal access to all users

Kevin Cramer (R): Praised FCC ruling ending Obama Net Neutrality rules. Said other ways to protect the internet.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): Yes. Strong supporter. Voted to reverse FCC repeal of net neutrality.

On War & Peace: Withdraw from treaty limiting Iran's nuclear capability

Kevin Cramer (R): Yes.

Heidi Heitkamp (D): No.

On Families & Children: The #MeToo movement is all about victimization

Invoking his wife, daughters, mother and mother-in-law, he added: "They cannot understand this movement toward victimization. They are pioneers of the prairie. These are tough people whose grandparents were tough and great-grandparents were tough."

On Abortion: Announced for Senate due to incumbent's pro-choice vote

The president called to say he was disappointed. "I hope you don't disappoint me again," Cramer tells me Trump said to him at the time. "Start thinking more about your country and less about yourself." For Cramer, one of the very first Republican politicians to endorse Trump during his 2016 run for president, the pointed message was difficult to ignore.

Then, just a week or two later, the Senate voted on the 20-week abortion ban, and Heitkamp joined nearly all of her Democratic colleagues in opposing it, despite having promised her constituents that she'd support it.

After that vote, Cramer says, he was inundated with calls from North Dakotans demanding that he jump in to challenge Heitkamp.

On Immigration: Chain-link fences ok for holding kids of illegal immigrants

Cramer called the facilities "humane" during an appearance on KTGO, a local radio station that broadcasts in the Bakken Oil Fields. "Chain link fences are around playgrounds all over America, all over North Dakota. And chain link fences allow line-of-sight visual connectivity with children and families," he said as he discussed reversing President Trump's policy to let families stay together at the border. "You know, there's nothing inhumane about a chain link fence. If it is, then every ballpark in America is inhumane."

Cramer then went on to say he supported changing the law to allow families to stay together when they enter the country illegally. The comments came before Trump announced he'd reverse his recently implemented strategy of separating children and parents at the border with an executive order.

On Immigration: Audio of immigrants' kids crying is "irrelevant hoopla"

"I think chain-link fences is irrelevant to the crying of children," he said when asked about the comments and whether he'd heard the audio of children wailing after being separated from their parents. "There's all this hoopla, because I think that's a ruse by some on the left to try to create an image that's far worse in description than it is in reality," he said.

"The actual value of the chain-link fence is you could see through it, that's the value of the chain link. If they put up a sheet rock wall between the children and the workers, the people there to protect them, to me that would be far worse," Cramer said. "There's a broader conversation about the separation of families in general, but that happens throughout the country many times. The separation of children from their parents who do illegal things--it happens in every city of the country every day."