Hello there, I'm Chuck Todd. This is the Chuck Todd cast. So here we are. We are almost a

week out. Voters are voting. Early voting has begun across the country. My guest today

is Heidi Heiken. So former Democratic Senator from North Dakota, who didn't want to be a

former Senator. She was on the ballot in 2018. Let's not, you know, it wasn't by choice, but she

was on the other side of a midterm, of the midterms during the last midterm that we had. But we

wanted to talk to her about her party and the work she's been doing to try to fix what is a glaring

problem for the Democratic Party and that is support in rural America. So Senator, thank you for the

time. Thanks so much. And I do want to point out that 18 was a great year for House members.

Not so good for the Democratic Senate where we lost three incumbents. And so, you know, when people

are saying, well, it's going to be a sweeper, it's going to be a wave. You need to be really

careful because people really are voting differently for the Senate than they are for the House.

No, I think there's always individual dynamics in statewide races that, you know, the jersey

color in a house race can matter a lot more, more so than in a Senate race, don't you think?

Yep, absolutely. I mean, there were people that voted for you that may have wanted a Republican

Senate, but they liked you, but they may have decided to vote for you. And that happened still

in a place like North Dakota or it did, right? Or people who liked me. In fact, this was probably

more common who wanted Donald Trump to have a Republican Senate. So Donald Trump was pretty

effective in 18 and putting himself on the ballot in Senate races, even though it was a midterm.

Well, and that's what I want to talk about because it is interesting, you know, Donald Trump may

be unpopular in suburban America and he may actually be an anti-turnout vessel in suburban America.

But in rural America, Donald Trump's a folk hero. At least that's what I've learned or I've seen

and I've witnessed. I'm curious, is that what you see or hear out there?

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