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When we booked U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong for this episode of Plain Talk, we weren't planning on talking about Donald Trump. The plan was to get Armstrong's reactions to polls showing a prohibitive lead for him over Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller in the Republican gubernatorial primary. The plan was to discuss the debate the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce just hosted between him and Miller.
But then a New York jury convicted Trump on 34 criminal counts, and we were obliged to talk to Armstrong about it. All the more so because, just hours before the jury handed down that verdict, Trump had endorsed Armstrong in the primary.
It was a respectful but heated conversation -- neither I nor my co-host Chad Oban are Trump fans -- but I'm glad we had it. And one thing I appreciate about Armstrong is that you can have vigorous disagreements with him, and it's never personal.
Armstrong, a former criminal defense attorney, addressed some of the legal arguments around the case. My argument? I'm worried that the particulars of the legal arguments cause us to gloss over the grotesque behavior from Trump that's at the heart of the case. Namely, the fact that he paid off multiple porn stars to cover up extra-marital affairs, and colluded with a notorious tabloid to capture and kill negative stories about him.
We didn't just talk about Trump, though. We also covered the debate, property taxes, and child care.
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U.S. House candidate Alex Balazs is still set on winning. On this episode of Plain Talk, he told me and co-host Chad Oban that he plans to finish the last two weeks of his primary campaign strong. There will be ads and billboards and travel, and the candidate, who received the North Dakota Republican Party's convention endorsement in April, thinks he can win, despite polls showing him in a distant 4th place.
But if he doesn't, would he stay involved in politics? "I just don't know," he said.
Balazs also took questions about Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York, with its looming verdict, and the level of assistance he's received from the North Dakota Republican Party. "They've been really good at helping," he said.
Also on this episode, Chad and I discuss the recent polling in the Republican House and gubernatorial primaries, dirty campaigning in legislative races, and more.
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"I've been an outside viewer," Dustin McNally, a Republican candidate for the state Senate in Grand Forks-area District 42, said on this episode of Plain Talk. "I haven't really liked what I've seen.
McNally was speaking about what he's been seeing from North Dakota's Legislature. "It's a lot of negative news. It's a lot of changes in the Republican party, and not for the better," he said.
"I feel like they're not working for me," he added. "I feel like they're working for themselves."
"People are fed up, he continued."
McNally says he'd like to see more focus on pragmatic issues, and less on dramatic culture war topics. "I'm a frugal, fiscally conservative person," he said. "I'm not a headline grabber."
Also on this episode, me and co-host Chad Oban talk about the ominous silence coming from Epic Companies, a West Fargo-based company with projects in just about all of North Dakota's major communities that is widely rumored to be in distress but isn't being forthcoming with information.
We also discussed the state of the Republican U.S. House primary, and how certain legislative races around the state may impact North Dakota's balance of political power.
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U.S. House candidate Rick Becker recently took the unusual step of paying internet personality and trans rights activist Dylan Mulvaney to record a message praising the energy record of his primary rival, Public Service Commisisoner Julie Fedorchak.
The message was done tongue-in-cheek -- though it hasn't sat well with some elements of the MAGA movement who take exception to Becker working with Mulvaney in even a joking way -- but Becker used it to attack Fedorchak's record on coal issues.
"What’s not a laughing matter is how time and again Julie Fedorchack placed radical green energy proposals above the coal industry here in North Dakota," he wrote.
That may have been a mistake. North Dakota's coal industry noticed Becker's stunt, and it has prompted them to endorse Fedorchak in the race.
"That is a statement I can't even wrap my head around," Jason Bohrer, the president of the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council and chair of Lignite's political action committee, said on this episode of Plain Talk. "I don't understand where that statement comes from," he added.
Bohrer told me and co-host Chad Oban that Lignite doesn't typically endorse in partisan primaries, but they feel this situation is different. "This is a place where we have to be clear," Bohrer said. "We do support Julie."
He made it clear that the organization is endorsing Fedorchak in the race.
Bohrer said he didn't want to spend a lot of time "attacking" Becker's record on coal issues while serving in the Legislature, but he did say that Becker "has never been supportive" of the industry's priorities on research and development.
"We had a group of legislators we would go to for those things," Bohrer added. "He wasn't in it."
Also on this episode, state Rep. Michelle Strinden, who is running for Lt. Governor alongside gubernatorial candidate Kelly Armstrong, took questions about being chosen as a running mate, the state of the race, and top issues like education and property taxes.
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A civil war is playing out in the North Dakota Republican Party between traditionally conservative Republicans and MAGA-aligned populists. One front in that war is the NDGOP's legislative primaries, where a group called Citizens Alliance of North Dakota is trying to defeat traditional Republicans.
State Rep. Brandon Prichard, a Republican from Bismarck, is the executive director of Citizens Alliance. His group has been sending mailers to voters suggesting that its preferred candidates in the primaries are backed by incumbents who do not support actually them.
One of the candidates targeted by these tactics, Rep. Jeremy Olson, a first-termer from District 26 who is seeking another term in the state House, joined this episode of Plain Talk. He called Prichard's tactics "absolutely underhanded and unethical.
Also, on this episode, guest co-host Ben Hanson and I and discuss former Fargo Mayor Jon Lindgren's argument that Gov. Doug Burgum is seeking to be disgraced former President Donald Trump's runningmate for the sake of being a moderating influence.
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"I like debates," Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorhcak told me and co-host Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk.
Fedorchak has come under fire from some of her opponents in the Republican U.S. House primary. Three of them — Rick Becker, Cara Mund, and Alex Balazs — participated in a recent debate sponsored by BEK Television. Fedorchak did not. "Last weekend was a balancing act," she said, noting that she's already participated in one debate with her opponents, with two more planned. She told us that the night of the debate was also her son's graduation party.
"I wanted to devote my attention to my son on Friday night," she said.
Fedorchak also responded to a recent independent poll I reported on, which shows her in a dead heat with Becker in the race (Mund is trailing as a distant third). She said she got into the race late and had a deficit in name identification with voters but that the poll "shows that we closed the gap" with Becker.
She added that she feels confident about her position in the race. "I'm the only candidate who has consistently been a Republican," she said, referencing the fact that both Mund and Becker campaigned against Republicans as independents last cycle.
"I have strong favorability in the polling we've seen," she added.
That's something Dean Mitchell of DFM Research, who conducted the survey for North Dakota United, spoke about as well in a separate interview. Mitchell said the House race is tight but favors Fedorchak. "I'd rather not be Becker," he said. "I think he's at his ceiling. I think she (Fedorchak) has more room for growth."
"I'd give the edge to Fedorchak," he added, though he acknowledged that the race is very close. "I wouldn't put much money on it."
The NDU poll also covered the gubernatorial race, showing current U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong with a 38-point lead over Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller, a nearly identical result to numbers released to me by the Armstrong campaign from a contemporaneous poll.
"I don't want to say you can put a fork in it," Mitchell said, "but the silverware is on the table."
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