(BISMARCK, ND) – When Republicans first considered Congressman Kevin Cramer’s candidacy, they cringed and worked to keep him out of the race. Why didn’t they want him to run? Maybe it was Cramer’s penchant for saying outrageously offensive things. Or maybe it was his sycophantic need to stand with the president 100 percent of the time, even when it’s bad for North Dakota.

“Top Republicans in Washington are privately sending this message to a GOP congressman once viewed as a top recruit in North Dakota: Don’t run.” [CNN, 4/14/17]

“National Republicans are lukewarm on Rep. Kevin Cramer.” [Politico, 7/6/17]

“Republicans were trying to keep [Cramer] out of the race.” [Politico, 2/14/18]

“A Series Of Gaffes” “Convinced The GOP” To Look For Non-Cramer Candidates. [Politico, 1/11/18]

“Last year, [the GOP] wanted to go a different direction.” [ND Explains, 2/13/18]

Republicans Were Fearful Cramer Gaffes Could Hurt Chances Of Taking Seat; GOP Campaign Veteran Said Cramer Had “Akin-Like Tendencies.” [CNN, 4/14/17]

“Top Republicans are pressuring Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) not to launch a 2018 Senate bid against Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, according to a new report.” [The Hill, 4/14/17]

Since Cramer entered the race, he’s continued to prove why Republicans were nervous in the first place:

• HEADLINE: CNN: GOP Senate candidate Kevin Cramer: ‘Nothing inhumane about a chain-link fence’
• HEADLINE: West Fargo Pioneer: GOP Senate hopeful Kevin Cramer sought, received support of extreme anti-gay group, CNN reports
• HEADLINE: PolitiFact: Kevin Cramer distorts record on government shutdown
• HEADLINE: Washington Post: N.D. Republican’s Senate campaign ‘fact-checking’ website promotes false claim on CBO estimates
• HEADLINE: PolitiFact: Kevin Cramer distorts Heidi Heitkamp’s record on banking regulations
• Valley News Live: Cramer’s Ad “Misleading”
• Zaleski, The Forum: Cramer’s Medicare ad’s “premise is false […] He can’t fudge his record, although he is one of the best fudge masters in Washington, D.C.”
• HEADLINE: Forum: McFeely: Cramer’s admission is Hamm-handed

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(BISMARCK, ND) – It’s been over four days and twelve hours since Kevin Cramer missed his self-imposed deadline to stand with North Dakota against the trade war. Reminder: Cramer gave a deadline of September for when he’d become “concerned” enough to stand against the trade war and break his pledge of supporting the president 100 percent of the time, even when it’s bad for North Dakota.

Cramer has even admitted that “there’s clearly some anxiety in agriculture about what’s going on” with the trade war, but he has yet to take any real measures to stem the economic effects it’s having.

How much more time will pass before Cramer puts North Dakotans ahead of his political capital?

On September 1st, the North Dakota Dem-NPL revamped its countdown clock to keep track of how long it’s been since Cramer failed to meet his own deadline.

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(BISMARCK, ND) – Kevin Cramer’s one campaign pledge is that he’ll support the president 100 percent of the time. But now that the president’s trade war is wreaking havoc on North Dakota’s economy, he’s trying to paper over his record of support, claiming he’s never been with the president 100 percent of the time and, in fact, that he doesn’t keep score of how often he voted with presidents. That’s false.

SHOT: Cramer Claimed He Had Never Been With Trump 100 Percent Of The Time And Did Not Keep Score Of How Often He Voted With Presidents.

CHASER: Cramer Voted With Trump 100 Percent of the Time – And Has Bragged About It.

• At A Rally In Fargo, Cramer Told The President He’d Be With Him “100 Percent Of The Time.” [Forum, 6/27/18]
• Roll Call: Cramer Was One Of 77 Republican Members Who Voted Trump’s Way On Every Vote During Which Trump Pushed For A Particular Outcome. [Roll Call, 3/5/18]
• Congressional Quarterly: Cramer Scored 100 Percent In Presidential Support For Voting In Agreement With Trump’s Positions.  [Congressional Quarterly – Vote Study Scores – House 2017, Accessed 2/20/18]

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(BISMARCK, ND) – Attention Kevin Cramer: Your attempts to rewrite your record of jeopardizing coverage for folks with pre-existing conditions won’t work. As HuffPost points out, “voters aren’t likely to believe they suddenly care about pre-existing conditions, just because they say they do.”

HuffPost: GOP Senate Candidates Are Scrambling To Rewrite Their Record On Pre-Existing Conditions
By Jonathan Cohn and Kevin Robillard
September 2, 2018

• All across the country, Republicans running for Congress are promising voters they will look out for people with pre-existing conditions while supporting some combination of legislation, litigation and regulation that would undermine those very protections.
• The stakes are high, with the livelihoods ― and lives ― of many Americans depending on the outcome. The ACA rewrote the rules for insurers selling plans directly to individuals and families so that carriers could no longer deny coverage or otherwise discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.
• [Republican] haven’t given up, even though last year’s effort failed. Just this week, Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed the party’s determination to take up repeal in 2019 if they still control Congress. In the meantime, the Trump administration has been using its executive authority to undermine pre-existing condition protections unilaterally ― most recently, by effectively creating a parallel market with plans that don’t live up to the ACA’s standards.
• These plans generally aren’t available to people with pre-existing conditions and don’t include many essential benefits, which means people who manage to get them are risking financial ruin if they get seriously ill. And by drawing healthy people out of the broader pool, these new plans will force insurers to jack up rates, forcing people with pre-existing conditions to pay more for coverage.
• That’s not the only threat to the ACA right now. There’s also the lawsuitthat Hawley, along with officials from 19 other politically conservative states [including North Dakota], has co-signed.
• The political problem for Republicans is that voters aren’t likely to believe they suddenly care about pre-existing conditions, just because they say they do. 
• And voters have said they’ll make politicians who don’t protect pre-existing conditions pay: In a Kaiser Family Foundation poll earlier this month, 89 percent of registered voters said “continuing protections for people with pre-existing health conditions” would be a factor in their vote, and 63 percent said it would be an important factor. Nearly half of Republicans, 64 percent of independents and 74 percent of Democrats said it would be an important factor in their vote.
• This is a frequent Republican contention, arguing repeal isn’t tantamount to abandoning people with pre-existing conditions. But their proposals would still allow insurers to discriminate against people with medical problems ― by, for example, charging higher prices to people with certain conditions or leaving out key benefits, like prescription coverage, that would make plans effectively useless to people who need ongoing treatment.
• “If you leave any loopholes open, insurers will take full advantage, and people with health needs will quickly find the coverage they need to be inaccessible, unaffordable or both,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown’s Center for Health Insurance Reform.
• The question for the midterms is whether voters will notice that Republicans are making the same empty promises as before.

Read the full article here.

Welcome to Cramer’s Chronicles where, every Friday, we’ll break down the latest and greatest weekly hits about Cramer’s crooked, self-serving, extreme, and gaffe-prone behavior that puts himself and his partisan politics ahead of North Dakotans.

CRAMER HAPPY WITH PROGRESS OF TRADE WAR. As Kevin Cramer’s self-imposed trade war deadline of September 1st approaches, Cramer is bafflingly stating that the use of tariffs and the ensuing trade war are all “playing out the way that [he] hoped.”

You read that right. Farmers and manufacturers’ concerns are growing over this conflict, yet Cramer is happy with the progress that has been made – all because the president says it’s going well. It’s just another proof point that Cramer will always stand with the administration 100 percent of the time rather than standing with North Dakotans.

NEW DEM-NPL AD: ND BEING USED AS WEAPON IN THIS TRADE WAR.” This week the North Dakota Dem-NPL released :15 and :30 digital ads on the trade war to highlight how Cramer’s refusal to stand up to the administration – and for North Dakotans – against these tariffs is hurting North Dakota’s economy. WATCH the ad here. The ads will run on Facebook for a minimum of two weeks.

LASHING OUT AT LAW ENFORCEMENT. After Senator Heitkamp received an endorsement from the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), Cramer did what he does best: lashes out – this time by bitterly trying to discredit the organization representing over 18,000 border security agents that endorsed President Trump in 2016. One passionate border patrol agent called into the program and took Cramer to task for playing politics and not standing up for them. Listen HERE.

CRAMER PROVES HE’S “ONE OF THE BEST FUDGE MASTERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.” That’s how the Forum’s Jack Zaleski referred to Cramer’s attempts to paper over his record of putting himself and his special interests above North Dakotans. There are still 65+ days to go until the Election, but Cramer’s misinformation campaign has already kicked into full gear to distort his record on health care, the trade war, and border security, to name a few. See for yourself:

HEADLINE: PolitiFact: Kevin Cramer distorts record on government shutdown

• We rate this statement Mostly False.

HEADLINE: Washington Post: N.D. Republican’s Senate campaign ‘fact-checking’ website promotes false claim on CBO estimates

• Four Pinocchios. 

HEADLINE: PolitiFact: Kevin Cramer distorts Heidi Heitkamp’s record on banking regulations

• We rate this statement False. 

Valley News Live: Cramer’s Ad “Misleading”

• We must label the most recent ad from Cramer’s campaign as ‘misleading.’ 

PolitiFact on the Cramer-Endorsed Trade War:

• Economists tell us the effects of the tariffs, while imprecise so far, are not pretty.

PolitiFact on Cramer’s Health Care Agenda:

• Whatever Cramer’s wish is, his votes jeopardize coverage as it stands for pre-existing conditions […] The limits of what insurance companies could charge would have been watered down, which would have sent premiums skyrocketing, experts say, to the point that coverage for many would be unattainable.

CRAMER’S ACTIONS RAISED SERIOUS QUESTIONS AS TO THE “APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY.” While on the Public Service Commission, Cramer faced a lawsuit for allegedly taking “improper campaign contributions” – over $55,000 – from the same industries with applications before the PSC. The judge who oversaw the case called Cramer’s actions “devoid of common sense” and said they raised serious questions as to the “appearance of impropriety.” BOTTOM LINE: Cramer will always act with his own interests in mind, even when it goes against the interests of North Dakotans and even when it means throwing his own integrity to the wayside.

HEADLINE: CRAMER COULD BE USING A LOOPHOLE TO SKIRT REPORTING Cramer’s finances keep getting called into question. From Tyler Axness:

• As Congressman Kevin Cramer is seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate, he may be using a loophole to skirt the reporting requirements of his assets on his personal financial disclosure.
• This wouldn’t be the first time Cramer’s financial reporting has raised questions. In fact, if he is using a loophole it only leads to more questions.
• As far as I can tell, Cramer has not reported having a bank account on his federal personal financial disclosure dating back to the mid-1990s.
• [Cramer earned] approximately $995,650 in [between 2011 and 2016]. Earlier this year, Politico reported that Cramer has reimbursed himself approximately $200,000from his campaign account. Yet no bank account reported on his personal financial disclosure.
• It seems odd Cramer hasn’t reported a bank account. Other candidates for the U.S. Senate have done so. Unless he has distributed these funds at numerous banks as to not have an aggregated amount over $5,000 then perhaps he found a creative loophole to not disclose all of his financial assets. If that is the case, further scrutiny is needed. What would he be hiding?

Read more here.

ND RURAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION SPEAKS OUT AGAINST CRAMER-BACKED LAWSUIT. The President of the North Dakota Rural Health Association spoke out against the Cramer-backed lawsuit that could remove patient protections for up to 300,000 North Dakotans.

TWEET OF THE WEEK.

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(BISMARCK, ND) – Less than one day remains until Kevin Cramer’s self-imposed September 1st deadline to stand with North Dakotans against the harm being done by the administration’s trade war. In typical Cramer fashion, Cramer punted his responsibility to stand with North Dakota, saying that if things were still bad in September, he’d be “concerned.”

What Cramer should be aware of is that not a single order has been placed for North Dakota soybeans in the last seven weeks and that farmers’ concerns about losing their market share are growing.

Cramer’s almost out of time to do the right thing – and North Dakotans will remember that he once again blindly stood with the administration instead of with them on Election Day.

See how much time is left on the countdown clock here.