Election analyst: Donnelly, Heitkamp most endangered Senate Dems

Election analyst Amy Walter said Tuesday that Sens. Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) are the two most vulnerable Senate Democrats running for reelection in November’s midterms.

“Between Indiana and North Dakota — those two are really, really tough,” Walter told co-hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”

Walter, the national editor of the Cook Political Report, points out that Donnelly isn’t a “brand name” like some other incumbents, such as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D).

“For Indiana, because Joe Donnelly … he’s not a brand name the same way that Manchin is,” Walter said. “It’s a much bigger state and many more media markets than West Virginia.”

Donnelly and Heitkamp are two of the 10 Democratic senators running for reelection in states President Trump won in 2016.

“North Dakota is about as a red of a state as you can get, and Heidi Heitkamp is a very solid incumbent who walks that line about being an independent trying to show that she’s going to stand up for North Dakota — not for the party,” Walter told Hill.TV.

Walter added that she thinks the controversy surrounding Trump’s tariffs and his new farm aid plan could help give Heitkamp a much-needed boost. Trump won North Dakota by almost 36 points.

“I think it helps if the focus is on tariffs and on commodity prices and she can run as a check on the president — not as a resister or fighter,” the analyst said.

Heitkamp last week spoke out against Trump’s $12 billion farmers’ assistance program, saying it doesn’t address the long-term ramifications of the president’s escalating trade war.

“At the end of the day, farmers don’t want a check, they want a market,”  Heitkamp told Hill.TV correspondent Molly Hooper.

— Tess Bonn