Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters via National Review
Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D) of North Dakota recently issued an apology for using the names of sexual assault survivors in a campaign ad without their consent. The ad, which was styled as an open letter to her opponent, Representative Kevin Cramer (R), identified 127 women as sexual assault victims--some of whom weren't even survivors, and many of whom were unaware that their names were being used. Heitkamp and the women involved believe their names were obtained through a post circulating on Facebook.
Needless to say...yikes. That'd be the abbreviated analysis of this situation, at least. There's a remarkable irony in a campaign ad advocating for victims of sexual assault failing to establish clear consent. It's incredibly disappointing and a major blunder for Senator Heitkamp's team to mishandle information in this way. Intentional or not, the campaign showed a staggering disregard for the privacy and safety concerns of its potential voters, a number of whom were initially planning to vote for Heitkamp but now refuse to support her.
It's becoming increasingly clear, however, that the person who stands to suffer the most damage from this egregious mistake is Heitkamp herself. Despite being the incumbent senator, Heitkamp is running for reelection in a conservative state and has already come under fire for voting against Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. North Dakota is considered a key seat in the battle for the Senate, and with Cramer currently leading her in the polls 53% to 41%, it seems unlikely that the Democrats will win the two seats needed to regain control. Heitkamp's mismanaged campaign ad seems only to have added fuel to the fire, turning what was meant to be a show of solidarity with survivors into the perceived exploitation of personal trauma for political gain.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/17/politics/heitkamp-abuse-survivors-answers/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/us/politics/heitkamp-north-dakota-ad-apology.html?fallback=0&recId=1BjcUqUdNx5UNOkrV45AfSbkxo5&locked=0&geoContinent=NA&geoRegion=CA&recAlloc=contextual-bandit-home-geo&geoCountry=US&blockId=midterm-elections&imp_id=739146619&action=click&module=Election%202018&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.apnews.com/8f55736281fb487aaf68cb06b9fc3dbe
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/heidi-heitkamp-apologizes-outing-sexual-assault-survivors/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/06/politics/poll-of-the-week-heidi-heitkamp-is-in-trouble/index.html
5 comments:
There's a thin line between fighting for sexual assault victims and using their stories for political gain. Using the names without consent is a mistake, and even though it may have honest intentions, it still comes off as unsettling at best. Unfortunately this mistake characterizes Heitkamp as someone who does not respect sexual assault survivors even if that was not her intention, which has hurt her chances of winning a seat in Senate even more. As a politician, it's important to keep a good image because one small slip up can ruin your entire campaign.
I agree that it was completely wrong and irresponsible to use sexual assault victims for political reasons. Putting their names on the ad like she did without contacting them to get their names cleared shows a lack of care and respect. The effects this will have on her chances of winning a seat will be noticed and I think reasonable. The task at hand to get sexual assault victims who truly back you as a candidate and want to be displayed on the ad to raise awareness does not seem to be over the top or impossible. This irresponsible action, which has had a seemingly easy solution, ended up costing and hurting the candidate's chances. Making it look like it was just for political gain makes it look to the public as if she does not care about what she is saying.
This is a huge blunder for Heidi Heitkamp. The other commenters here and the article have already done a great job explaining why. However, I don't know if this is what sinks her campaign. After voting "no" on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, she did receive $12.5 million in fundraising. Whether this will help or not amid everything else in her campaign, it remains to be seen. November 6th should be very interesting this year.
I think that what Heitkamp did was immoral and very careless. There was a very easy solution to this issue by simply contacting them and asking for consent. Even if it was a mistake, this is very costly to her, depicting her as someone who doesn't actually care for sexual assault victims and only desires to use them for political gain. This not only affects victims who support her but a lot of her other policies as well. Many people will view her as an unresponsible person and may just be supporting certain policies to appeal to a specific audience. The lack of trust evoked from this one mistake will cause the public to doubt her ability to fulfill her promises.
I'm commenting pretty late, but I feel now that we know the results of the election we can add more insight to this question. Heitkamp lost the election 55.5% to 43.5% despite having all the advantages of being an incumbent. Obviously, the chances of a Democratic senator being elected in a state that overwhelmingly voted for Trump are pretty slim, but I think this accident only further damaged her chances. Previous democratic supporters may even opt out of voting for her do to the leakage of this personal information. Voting "no" on Kavanaugh's confirmation was also a risky moved that may have aligned with her party/personal views, but the not the entirety of her constituency.
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