ICYMI: ‘Hamm-handed’ confession shows Cramer (R-Harold Hamm) running for all the wrong reasons

“Serving North Dakotans or the country might not have been a deciding factor for Kevin Cramer running for the United States Senate, but out-of-state billionaire Harold Hamm offering up big bucks definitely was.”

(BISMARCK, ND) – Kevin Cramer (R-Harold Hamm) is showing us what Washington swamp politics really look like. This week, he admitted that a desire to serve the citizens of North Dakota wasn’t what finally dragged Kevin Cramer into this year’s campaign for U.S. Senate – after initially backing out. According to Cramer’s interview with WDAY, it was an out-of-state billionaire who signed on to bankroll his campaign.

The admission is pretty startling – even for a politician widely known for his penchant to make careless and inappropriate remarks. His confession begs the question – is Kevin Cramer involved in this race for himself and Washington insiders or for the residents of North Dakota?

Watch Cramer’s Hamm-handed confession here. Highlights from the column below:

Forum: McFeely: Cramer’s admission is Hamm-handed

• A public servant should be swayed by public service and the desire, regardless of political affiliation or ideology, to do good things for constituents, no matter how a candidate might define “good things.”

• But those are not the worst reasons. No, that distinction, the absolute most miserably insufficient reason to run, is to have an out-of-state industrialist with a direct interest in having you elected be the person who finally persuaded you. North Dakota, meet Kevin Cramer. Oh, and Harold Hamm, who is important to this story, too.

• According to Cramer, Hamm is the person who pushed him over the line to run for the Senate. He said so in an interview with WDAY-TV[.]

• “It took months to get him to run. He said ‘no’ to other Republicans. ‘No’ to the president. He didn’t want to risk losing his seat in the House,” WDAY’s narrator said. “But it was a call from oil tycoon Harold Hamm, whose net worth is $18 billion, that finally tipped the scales.”

• Not North Dakotans, not the country. A wealthy out-of-state oil man who promised to raise a lot of money. That’s the who and why that tripped Cramer’s trigger.

• It’s always telling to know what compels people to make major decisions. Harold Hamm compelled Kevin Cramer. What does that tell you?