Plain Talk

Resolutions are, once again, causing headaches for North Dakota Republicans ahead of the 2024 statewide convention. One party resolution to be voted on at the convention calls for laws that would put a pregnant woman who seeks an abortion in jail, along with anyone who helped her. Another denigrates public schools as places where children are indoctrinated. Yet another opposes vaccinations using d...

"The reality is we knew the campaign team," U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong told me and my co-host Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk. Armstrong was responding to a question about his decision to go negative first against his opponent, Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller, in North Dakota's Republican gubernatorial primary. "We are going to play the game by the rules as they are not as we wish them to be," he sai...

It's campaign season, and unfortunately in the news cycle that often means substantive policy discussions takes a back seat to aspersions and invective from political campaigns. We have a bit of both on this episode of Plain Talk. Yes, we talk about U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong throwing the first punch in what promises to be a nasty gubernatorial primary against Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller. And yes, we int...

The North Dakota Republican Party will be holding what will be a very interesting event on April 5. Interesting in the conventional way in that it will be a showcase of (most) of the party's statewide candidates. Interesting also in that there is a divide among Republicans between those who think the party's most ardent activists, the one who fill up the seats at the party's conventions, are incre...

There is a shift happening in North Dakota politics. Republicans are divided between Trump-style populists, and more traditional conservatives. The legislative primary in District 8 may well be a bellwether for the future of both North Dakota's dominant political party, and the way in which our state is governed. That jurisdiction is home to state Rep. Brandon Prichard, one of the most polarizing...

"It's strategically dumb," says Sen. Kevin Cramer, referring to those who heckled President Joe Biden during the State of the Union address, and otherwise made a spectacle of themselves. Cramer joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the president's speech, the Senate's GOP's progress toward picking a new leader, and the prospect for tackling border security during an election year. Cramer ha...

For people of a certain age, who entered adulthood around the turn of the last century, the music of Five for Fighting is a cultural touchstone. The song, "Superman (It's Not Easy)" was an anthem post 9/11. John Ondrasik, the man who is Five for Fighting, performed it at the 2001 Concert for New York. Ondrasik, who will be playing the Fargo Theater in Fargo on March 26, accompanied by a string qua...

As someone who has worked as a reporter in this state for more than two decades, who has broken a very large number of stories based on records requested from various government entities, I know a thing or two about North Dakota open records laws. When a prosecutor says that criminal charges can't be brought in a case where a staffer ordered the deletion of the emails of a deceased state official...

We talk a lot about political leaders and activists who do stupid things. Ugly things. Cynical and self-serving things. But what about those who are standing up for what's right? On this episode of Plain Talk, co-host Chad Oban and I discussed Sec. of State Michael Howe, North Dakota's top election official who has, despite the partisan pressures coming from his office, has maintained that the 202...

Rep. Scott Louser, a Republican from Minot who also recently announced a campaign for the local school board, has a big proposal aimed at school funding and North Dakota's seemingly intractable property tax problem. He has organized it into a draft bill for the 2025 legislative session. But does that mean he thinks a proposed ballot measure to abolish property taxes won't pass? "Dr. Becker is lead...

No, the Republican presidential primary is not over yet. And yes, North Dakotans, you will have a chance to vote in it and make a difference. Bob Harms, who is running the NDGOP's presidential caucuses, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the process. He talked about how to vote, and where to vote, and how those votes will be counted and reported. You can click here for more information....

Why did Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak opt to run for the United States Hosue of Representatives? "I don't like the state of our country," she told me and my co-host Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk. Fedorchak is a long-time member of the policy-intensive PSC, and thinks she can take what she learned from administering the complicated to the point of being arcane regulatory pro...

Me and my co-host Chad Oban took a break from guests on this episode of Plain Talk to spend some to talk through some of the headlines in North Dakota. We discussed the Republican primary races. With Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller in the gubernatorial race with U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, and Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak in the U.S. House race with former state lawmakers Rick Becker and Tom C...

Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller has announced her campaign for governor. She'll be taking on U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong in the Republican primary. Asked, on this episode of Plain Tal, how she's different from Armstrong, she touted her business background. "I'm a proven business leader," she said, referencing the 14 years she spent leading Border States Electric, the Fargo-based electrical distributor and one...

"Republicans understandably and rightly believe that border security is important for our national security," U.S. Senate candidate Katrina Christiansen told me and co-host Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk. Wanting a secure border is "absolutely paramount if you're going to be a real leader," she added. I want to stress, at this juncture, that Christiansen is a Democrat. She's challenging i...

Chris Berg says that he once had a boss, when he was a talk radio host for AM1100 "The Flag" in Fargo, who told him that he was supposed to be infuriating his audience. "You gotta get people angry," Berg says he was told (he said people will think he was talking about host Scott Hennen, but that it was someone else). In addition to talk radio, Berg was the host of the politically-themed 6:30 Point...

MINOT — Sen. Kevin Cramer is vexed by some of his fellow Republicans who want to kill a tax bill, and an immigration deal, lest they be seen accomplishing anything that might be perceived by voters as an accomplishment for incumbent Republican Joe Biden. "That frustrates me," told me and my co-host Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk. On the immigration bill, specifically, Cramer said Biden is...

Former state Sen. Tom Campbell has a plan for getting the nation's finances in order should he be elected to Congress. "No new hiring," he said. "Let's use artificial intelligence." He argued that many government jobs could be automated, resulting in dramatic reductions in the federal workforce, and savings for taxpayers. Campbell is seeking the NDGOP's nomination for the U.S. House, and he had so...

MINOT — "I think our personalities are different," Rep. Kelly Armstrong said on this episode of Plain Talk, responding to my question about how he's different from outgoing Gov. Doug Burgum. Armstrong immediately launched a campaign to be North Dakota's next governor when Burgum announced that he wouldn't seek a third term in that office. "Given the current dynamic change in the political environm...

It's been a wild week in North Dakota politics. Former state Rep. Rick Becker announced a primary challenge to U.S. House incumbent Kelly Armstrong. But then, Armstrong left the race to run for governor because the incumbent there, Doug Burgum, opted not to seek a third term. Many pieces are moving around the chess board of North Dakota politics. On this episode of Plain Talk, me and my co-host Ch...

"Yeah, I think that's a fair conclusion," Aaron Moss, a former member of the Minot Police Department, and the Sgt. at Arms of the North Dakota Fraternal Order of Police, told me and co-host Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk. Moss was asked if his group feels state Rep. Nico Rios, who so far hasn't stepped down after an incident in which he berated two Williston Police Department officers wit...

When we talk about carbon dioxide, it's usually in the context of having too much of it. Which is to say, that we're putting too much carbon into our atmosphere though human activity. But according to Ron Ness, the president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, who joined me and co-host Ben Hanson on Plain Talk today, our state's oil industry is going to need more carbon to keep itself sustainab...

"It's one thing to think about Democrats in the abstract," U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer, himself a Democrat, told co-host Chad Oban and I on this episode of Plain Talk. "It's another thing to meet a Democrat. Hammer has a strong military and labor background, and when he said that, he was responding to a question about how he, as a member of a party that in many ways has lost touch with blue...

One of the first things former state Senator Tom Campbell said as he began his interview on this episode of Plain Talk with co-host Chad Oban and I was this: "I'm not here to bash Doug," referring to incumbent Governor Doug Burgum. Campbell, who is considering a run for governor himself, then spent the next six minutes or so bashing Doug. "He's been an ok governor," Campbell said, damning the incu...

If you own property in North Dakota right now, and you live at that property as your primary residence, you are probably eligible for a $500 property tax credit from the State of North Dakota. You can fill out an online form on the Tax Commissioner's website right now and claim that credit. Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss that process. He says some 35,00...