When a small group of alarmed White House aides caught wind that Sen. Heidi Heitkamp — one of the most endangered Democrats up for reelection in 2018 — would be attending President Donald Trump’s bill signing last week, they raced to stop it.
Word eventually reached Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has made unseating Heitkamp a top priority. He opted not to intervene, and the invitation stood: As the president signed a banking deregulation bill into law before a national audience, Heitkamp was right next to him, the only Democrat in the room.