FARGO - U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp will vote NO on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination.

“The most important thing you tell a victim, if you, in fact, do, is that you believe the victim,” explained Heitkamp.

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In an exclusive interview with WDAY News, Senator Heidi Heitkamp shares what led to her decision in this historic U.S. Senate vote, and perhaps one of the biggest in her Senate career.

“The process has been bad, but at the end of the day, you have to make a decision, and I have made that decision,” said Heitkamp. “I will be voting no on Judge Kavanaugh.”

Many in national and regional political circles have called this vote a no-win for the Senator.

A yes vote upsets her base in North Dakota.

A no vote obviously gives the conservatives in the state campaign ammo.

But Heitkamp says it's clear, her work on trafficking in the Senate along with advocating for victims makes this decision, she says, personal.

“It’s a lifetime appointment. This is not a political decision, if this were a political decision for me, I would be deciding this the other way. There is an old saying, ‘history will judge you but most importantly you will judge yourself,’ and that is what I am saying, I can't get up in the morning and look at the life experience I have had and say yes to Judge Kavanaugh,” The senator added.

Heitkamp came at this from a unique perspective, a former attorney general in North Dakota, a female senator, and mother of a daughter.

The question now, what impact will this one vote have when North Dakotans head to the polls just weeks from now.

The Republican National Committee says with this vote, that Heitkamp isn't listening to her North Dakota constituents.

The RNC says North Dakotans have overwhelming support for Judge Kavanaugh.

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