Trump courts Heitkamp in North Dakota tax pitch

MANDAN, N.D. — President Donald Trump made an overt pitch Wednesday for Democrats to support his tax overhaul plan, singling out a North Dakota Democratic senator whose vote would be prized by the White House.

Delivering an outdoor speech to a crowd of hundreds at an oil refinery, Trump called for the state’s governor and congressional delegation to join him on stage, including Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the only statewide elected Democrat in heavily Republican North Dakota.

“Everybody’s saying: What’s she doing up here?” Trump said of the first-term senator, adding: “I hope we’ll have your support” and calling her “a good woman.”

The president sought to frame the tax overhaul as a “once in a generation” opportunity to cut taxes and simplify the tax code.

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