Since winning his Senate race against Democrat Heidi Heitkamp a year ago, Cramer hasn’t changed his speaking style even though it was widely viewed as a liability on the campaign trail by Republicans and Democrats. As a congressman, Cramer was known for what his critics call gaffes but which he views as central to his authenticity.

Take his suggestion that Democratic congresswomen might have a type of disease when they wore “bad-looking white pantsuits” to Trump’s address to Congress in solidarity with Hillary Clinton. It’s the kind of comment that might cause a political consultant to faint — but barely earned a shrug from Cramer.

“There was a school of thought among the establishment, including the Republican establishment, that: ‘Ah this guy's too reckless with his words, he's just gonna say some crazy thing. Like those women wearing white suits, making asses of themselves,’” Cramer said with a hearty laugh. “Come to find out ... this is what [people] like.”

Cramer doesn’t do talking points, which he describes as “so shallow.” He also roams the Capitol alone, often without aides to monitor him. His Republican colleagues so far don’t appear to mind his laid-back attitude in the Senate, and Cramer said he’s never heard any complaints from them.

“It’s refreshing. He’s not guarded,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C).

But Graham drew the line at comparing Cramer with Trump.

“Oh no," the South Carolina Republican replied. "Nobody is."

“It’s refreshing. He’s not guarded." Sen. Lindsey Graham

North Dakota Democrats see something different. Joel Heitkamp, Heidi’s brother and a former state senator, compared Cramer to Trump’s “little evil guy, mini-me.”

“North Dakotans don’t like a suck up and that will bite him in the end,” said Heitkamp, who hosts a popular radio show in the state and has a blunt speaking style himself. “As we speak, he’s probably polishing Donald Trump’s shoes or mowing his yard. That’s Kevin.”

Cramer has emerged as a strong ally for the president in the Senate. But unlike some senators, Cramer says he doesn’t need to constantly chat with Trump and seems to have a sense of where Trump will stand on an issue — and he’s not afraid to share it.

In his office, the senator keeps a photo of himself with his wife, Kris, his son Abel and Trump, from a meeting in 2018 in which Trump tried to persuade him to run for a Senate seat that he repeatedly balked at. Cramer regales reporters with the story of Trump quizzing Abel what the button on his desk does (it signals to a staffer to bring him a soda) and repeatedly says during the interview that he wishes his wife was present to explain his unusual mindset further.

“Everything I've done in politics has been pretty much uncalculated,” said Cramer, a former state party chair.

Yet he does make the calculation to draw the line at some things. Unlike some of his colleagues, for example, he’s also not ready to embrace some of Trump’s conspiracy theories.

While Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), another strong Trump ally in the Senate, created a firestorm recently when he suggested falsely that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, Cramer wouldn’t go there. Instead, he likes to stick to what he knows: Russia interfered.

But Cramer, like nearly all of his Republican colleagues, disapproves of the House’s impeachment proceedings — and says it would be like Republicans going after President Barack Obama over the “birther issue,” a false conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States.

“Are we really going to just start doing this with presidents as coming up with ways to rebuke?” Cramer asked. “Can you imagine if some serious Republicans would have actually pushed the birther issue with, you know, Barack Obama, I mean it's almost that goofy to me.”

Cramer’s penchant for controversy — like say, comparing Trump’s impeachment over pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival to the birther theory pushed by Trump himself — isn’t charming to everyone. Tyler Axness, a former Democratic member of the North Dakota Senate, described Cramer as having a “long history of putting his foot in his mouth.”

“It’s made him look bad and it’s made his state look bad,” Axness said. “Since he’s won and become a United States senator, he’s doubling down on those efforts. He’s been emboldened.”