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FARGO, ND (Valley News Live) Republican candidate Kevin Cramer is ahead in the latest polling by Valley News Live on the U.S. Senate race in North Dakota. The poll, conducted by Strategic Research Associates of Austin, Texas, has Cramer in front of the incumbent Democrat Heidi Heitkamp by 10 percentage points, 51-41. The difference is in male voters, where Cramer garners 56.% to Heitkamp's nearly 35%. Females are virtually tied (46.6%-46.5%). A total of 650 likely voters were surveyed between September 17-27th on both landline and cell phones. In another question that VNL asked, 60% of the likely voters in...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is "screwing" over his Democratic colleagues by keeping them in session this October and therefore keeping them off the campaign trail, according to Politico's Burgess Everett. "Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is planning to keep the chamber in session for a significant portion of October if not four entire weeks, costing Democrats key campaign trail days and allowing the Senate to continue its work into the fall, according to five Republican officials," Everett writes . Yet, Republicans say two weeks is plenty of time for their Democratic colleagues to make their case to voters. Burgess Everett...

The Kentucky Republican identifies a large number of toss-up contests The 2018 midterms are setting up to be like a “knife fight in an alley,” according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Republican from Kentucky said he expects to see more of President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama on the campaign trail. But McConnell, asked about whether Trump should be talking about the prospects of Democrats trying to impeach him, said, “I don’t have any advice to give him about what he says at the rallies.” Speaking at a news conference Tuesday in Louisville, McConnell rattled off...

The new NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey, taken six weeks before Americans head to the polls, shows Democrats leading Republicans by 52 percent to 40 percent for control of Congress. If it holds, that 12 percentage point margin would suggest a "blue wave" large enough to switch control of not just the House but also the Senate.

Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court has prompted one of the most contentious battles on Capitol Hill since Donald Trump became president. ... Chuck Schumer and the 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee threw every punch at Kavanaugh they could muster, not to mention a few knees in the groin. The party’s progressive wing demanded no less -- a failure to engage in this fight would have made them targets from an array of liberal groups and activists. But Senate Democrats faced another dilemma, too: The prospective justice’s confirmation process is occurring in the heat of a hotly...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is moving to set up a Judiciary Committee vote on Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, likely next week. Grassley's office on Monday sent out an agenda for a business meeting the committee will have on Thursday. Kavanaugh's nomination is included as one of roughly two dozen judicial nominations that could get a vote. The move means Kavanaugh's nomination could get a vote as soon as this week. But Democrats are expected to delay the vote until next week, meaning Kavanaugh's nomination will likely be taken up by the committee on Sept. 20. Under committee rules, any...

For liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, it’s an easy choice regarding the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Both sides have made up their minds weeks before these hearings, which have devolved into total clown shows, started this week. With former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl being tapped to serve the remainder of the late John McCain’s term, we have a decisive vote locked up. Kyl is probably going to vote for Kavanaugh. I’m betting McCain would have a “yea” vote as well if he were healthy. The point is the game is over. We have won. The votes are...

The Senate’s final verdict on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh – whose high-stakes, high-wire confirmation hearing begins Tuesday – will hinge on the views of just a handful of lawmakers. As it stands, Republicans hold a razor-thin, 50-49 majority with one vacancy. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey will soon appoint a successor to the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., but even then the GOP majority can suffer few defections. These are the senators to watch: Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska These senators can be mavericks in their own right. Further, they fret about how health care issues...

BISMARCK — President Donald Trump will be back in North Dakota next week to headline a “VIP reception and fundraiser” for Rep. Kevin Cramer’s campaign, the Republican congressman said Wednesday. Trump will be in Fargo Sept. 7. It will mark the president’s second visit to the state’s most populous city during the closely watched contest between Cramer and Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who’s seeking a second term representing the deeply red state that Trump won with 63 percent of the vote. Cramer’s campaign spokesman, Tim Rasmussen, deferred further comment about the visit to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. A spokeswoman...

President Trump has a lot on the line in this fall’s midterm elections. So, he’s decided to turn for help to the man he trusts the most — himself. In the remaining 75 days until ballots are counted, Trump will invest at least 40 of them in campaigning for Republicans in both House and Senate races. He will spend additional time on fundraising for candidates and the party .And you may have noticed, this president is quite comfortable with spur-of-the-moment decisions. So, it’s likely he will add even more campaign days along the way as races and political needs develop....

Red-state Democrats are embracing one of Obamacare’s most popular provisions to help them win re-election in November. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota unveiled ads this week slamming GOP opponents for trying to gut Obamacare’s protections for people with pre-existing illnesses, such as diabetes or cancer. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., did the same in a Twitter video. Each of the candidates is seizing on actions by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration to unravel Obamacare. But instead of highlighting the law in general, they are centering on its rules obligating insurers to cover...

BISMARCK, N.D. - Supporters of legalizing recreational marijuana in North Dakota have succeeded in getting the measure on the November ballot. Secretary of State Al Jaeger says proponents submitted more than enough valid petition signatures. Supporters of legalizing recreational marijuana failed on a petition drive in 2016.

Joe Biden is leading the Democratic field in some early polls asking voters about the party’s prospective presidential candidates in 2020. But in his old stomping grounds in the U.S. Senate, there are plenty of skeptics who point to the former vice president’s age, his support for the Iraq War and his two failed presidential bids as reasons to doubt he would be successful. “It’s hard to see someone [winning] who voted for the Iraq war. People are looking to turn the page,” one senior Democratic aide said. A second senior Democratic aide said “polls show that voters want someone...

President Trump ripped the Koch brothers one day after the political network formed by the billionaire conservative businessmen said it would not support a Republican Senate candidate in North Dakota “The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade,” Trump said in a series of tweets early Tuesday. “I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas. They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more. I made them richer. Their network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every...

Billionaire conservative businessman Charles Koch’s political network is freezing out Republicans that it believes have violated its fiscally conservative principles, and is, at least for now, only supporting four Senate GOP candidates in the fall. The Koch network is backing GOP Senate candidates in Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee and Florida, signaling it will be selective in where it engages as Republicans seek to retain or grow their narrow 51-49 majority. At a Monday presentation to about 500 of the network’s top donors at a five-star resort in the Rocky Mountains, Americans for Prosperity president Tim Phillips made an example out of...

Billionaire activist Charles Koch said Sunday that his network of big-spending political groups would be more aggressive in going after Republicans who have failed to adhere to fiscally conservative principles. Speaking to a small group of reporters in a rare interview at a five-star resort in the Rocky Mountains, Koch vowed to hold GOP lawmakers accountable for their votes when they break with the network’s free-market views on issues like spending and tariffs. “I regret some of the [lawmakers] we have supported … we’re gonna more directly deal with that and hold people accountable,” Koch said. The Koch network will...

North Dakota has filed a claim against the federal government for $38 million the state spent dealing with the months-long Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests. The state claims the often violent protests were the result of negligence by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps failed to enforce the law and keep protesters from setting up illegal campsites on federal land, the state argues.

A new poll shows that voters in battleground states represented by vulnerable Senate Democrats decisively want President Donald Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, to replace Anthony Kennedy in the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)... The poll conducted by the Tarrance Group between July 5 and 8 revealed that voters agree by a decisive margin of at least 12 percent that their senators should confirm the SCOTUS appointment Trump announced Monday night. After explaining that the U.S. Senate will vote on the president’s appointment to replace Justice Kennedy, it asked voters, “Do you think Senator [Nelson, Donnelly, McCaskill, Heitkamp, or...

Judge Brett Kavanaugh is going to be a weeks-long torment for some on the Hill—and I’m talking about red state Democrats. Senate Republican moderates Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have been very receptive to Kavanaugh’s nomination, easing pressure from the right that they could sink this SCOTUS nominee if they defect. That could be the case, but for now, pressure has ramped up on Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), and maybe Bill Nelson (D-FL). Nelson needs help. Republican Gov. Rick Scott is outworking him on Hispanic outreach, and he’s beating Nelson...

Democrats are in for an uphill battle in November’s midterm elections as they struggle to overtake the GOP-led Senate, according to an Axios and SurveyMonkey poll of key states released Tuesday. Although Democrats only need to pick up two seats to gain the majority in the Senate, they are struggling to control 10 states already held by Democratic senators. These states are now predominantly red states with voters who are strong supporters of President Donald Trump. They include Indiana, Missouri, Montana and North Dakota, all of which Trump won in 2016, while his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton couldn’t even win...