Abdication of Leadership: After Endorsing Potential Trade War-Inducing Tariffs, Cramer Fails to Acknowledge Farmers, Ranchers during GOP Acceptance Speech

As Farmers’ Groups Beg Cramer “Not to wreck the car in the first place” By Opposing Tariffs, Cramer Ignores Their Call
Bismarck, N.D. – It’s no secret Congressman Cramer is willing to turn his back on North Dakotans to curry favor with President Trump. Just hours after comparing not voting with President Trump to marital infidelity, Cramer deleted ‘unfaithful’ tweets to President Trump’s agenda where he announced his opposition to the president’s tariffs which could have a devastating impact on North Dakota’s farmers, then posted new ones endorsing the tariffs.

In case he hadn’t been clear enough – during the North Dakota Republican convention on Saturday, Cramer doubled down: Underscoring over and over the need for ‘one more vote’ for President Trump’s agenda in the Senate, Congressman Cramer completely ignored farmers and ranchers – failing to mention them, trade, or the looming threat of tariffs once in his speech.

You read that correctly. Congressman Cramer didn’t mention farmers, ranchers, trade or the backbreaking tariffs they could face: Not one single time.

“Congressman Cramer has done everything in his power to make clear to farmers and ranchers who his priority would be in the Senate – and it’s not our state,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Dem-NPL. “After comparing a vote against Trump to cheating on a spouse, Cramer was quick to side with the president over North Dakota’s ag community on tariffs, even though he knows how they could devastate North Dakota farmers. But he didn’t stop there – he didn’t even mention farmers, ranchers or trade once during his speech once accepting the GOP nomination. Not one time. That’s about how often we can expect him to stand up for us – and it’s not the kind of cowardice North Dakotans deserve.”

The day Cramer neglected North Dakota farmers in his speech, The New York Times ran a story discussing just how severe President Trump’s tariffs could impact North Dakota farmers:

The New York Times: Farmers’ Anger at Trump Tariffs Puts Republican Candidates in a Bind

  • In North Dakota, a major soybean-producing state, Representative Kevin Cramer, a Republican who is running for the Senate, sounded restrained this past week when he urged Mr. Trump to “take a more measured approach” to China. By Friday, he sounded panicked.
  • China’s aggressive response to Mr. Trump’s tariffs is aimed squarely at products produced in the American heartland, a region that helped send him to the White House. A trade war with China could be particularly devastating to rural economies, especially for pig farmers and soybean and corn growers. Nearly two-thirds of United States soybean exports go to China.
  • But farm-state Republicans like Mr. Cramer believe that their constituents could be a casualty, and they are begging the Department of Agriculture to intervene.
  • In the past, these powers have been used to provide relief from wildfires and other natural disasters, farm groups said. But such a program could be time-consuming and costly.
  • Patrick Delaney, a spokesman for the American Soybean Association, said his group was still focused on trying to prevent the tariffs from going into effect, rather than examining what kind of measures the administration might take to support farmers. “It’s a whole lot easier not to wreck the car in the first place than it is to think about what a repair might look like,” he said.
  • For Republicans like Mr. Cramer, who is in a tough race against an incumbent Democrat, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, the president’s threat to sharply escalate the administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports — and China’s threat to retaliate against American farm products — spells trouble in this year’s midterm races. Mr. Cramer’s aides did not respond to requests for comment.