(BISMARCK, ND) – Looking forward to a second term in the United States Senate, representing North Dakota, Republican Senator Kevin Cramer says he always feels relieved when an election cycle comes to an end.
“I’ve been through these enough times to know that the way I feel this close to the election is relief that it’s almost over,” Cramer said in an interview Monday afternoon. But he says this year is different, saying ‘it’s not every time that I felt as good as I do this time in terms of my comfort with the likely outcome, and my sense of accomplishment.’
In the last six years serving as a United States Senator, Cramer said some things have changed.
“I’ve noticed it’s very hard work, and that you can’t burn a lot of bridges in the Senate if you want to get things done,” he said.
Cramer said the Senate ‘is a far better place than its reputation.’
He said that, due to a narrow division between Republicans and Democrats, ‘nobody gets 100 percent of what they want, and you have to learn the art of the deal.’
“You have to learn to compromise where you can compromise, you have to learn to disagree where you have to disagree,” he said. “But also there’s a lot of common ground than one might think.”
When it comes to the top issues important to North Dakotans, Cramer said the answers for North Dakotans are ‘pretty much the same everywhere in the country.’
“People, no matter how many times Kamala Harris tells them the economy is really great and Bidenomics worked really, really well, you cannot convince people of something they know not to be true,” Cramer said.
He says he hears the most concern with the cost of items going up much faster than people are able to pay for them, due to the inflation.
“This inflation is crushing on people,” Cramer said. “Inflation is not just a rate, year-to-year, month-to-month, day-over-day – it’s the cumulation of the costs over the course of months and years.”
He also hears a lot of concerns about the southern border.
Cramer will face Democratic challenger Dr. Katrina Christiansen.
