Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., will be challenged for her seat in 2018 by state Sen. Tom Campbell, R-N.D., Roll Call reported Wednesday.
"I just want to basically go to Washington and fight just like my dad did so my grandkids and kids can have the American Dream too," Campbell told Roll Call.
Campbell, who was first elected to the state senate in 2012, made his announcement on social media and said he wanted to partner with President Donald Trump. Heitkamp has not officially announced her re-election plans but has raised money for the run, the Associated Press reported.
Campbell has criticized Heitkamp for accepting money from out-of-state donors and said she is "against just about everything Trump's trying to do and always against our North Dakota core values."
As the Grand Forks Herald reported, Heitkamp was one of several lawmakers to blast Trump for his "woefully inadequate" comments regarding the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, but has a relationship with the president and even met with him about a Cabinet position in December.
Trump won the state in the 2016 election, and Republicans are champing at the bit to win Heitkamp's Senate seat.
"Donald Trump is as popular as ever in North Dakota," said a Republican senator who viewed polling in June. "If the election was held today we'd win, plain and simple."
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