Tom Udall: “I think all of us here watching Senator Heitkamp today give her farewell address were tremendously moved. I come away…”

“I think all of us here watching Senator Heitkamp today give her farewell address were tremendously moved. I come away, first of all, with, this is a person of character, a person we have served with who cares about doing the right thing, a person who cares deeply about the issues that are before this august body and someone we will miss very much. By the evidence of the Republicans who turned out to listen here on the floor--and I am sure many others were listening in their offices--I think they may miss her more than Democrats because she worked with them so much. She cared about reaching across the aisle. She wasn't worried that it was going to hurt her back home because she was going to be solving problems. One of the things I think of when I think of Heidi Heitkamp is that I have known Heidi--she is my friend. She reminds me: Don't call me your oldest friend in the Senate. But she is my longest standing friend. I go back to the early 1990s with Heidi, when we were attorneys general together from two small States--New Mexico and North Dakota--and we have been very, very good friends since then. Heidi is a leader of principle. She wants to do the right thing, no matter what. That is pretty special in this institution we are in. She wants to do what is right by North Dakota and do what is right by our country. She always follows her conscience, and she gives the citizens of her State and this great country her very best judgment.…”