BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is the only statewide-elected Democrat in heavily Republican North Dakota, where President Donald Trump rolled to a win last year.
The GOP is optimistic about knocking out the senator in next year's midterm elections.
Yet Heitkamp hardly resembles many of her hard-charging, Trump-resisting Democratic colleagues in Washington. She welcomed word of Trump's planned visit to the state on Wednesday. She diverges from Democratic orthodoxy on Trump nominations and her state's prized energy reserves as she's built a conservative Senate voting record.
It's why the 61-year-old Democrat is acceptable to a good number of the president's supporters.
Heitkamp hasn't announced plans to seek a second term, but would pose a surprising obstacle to Republicans' hope of expanding their 52-seat majority.