Julie Fedorchak and Trygve Hammer compete in the Plain Talk debate in the US House of Representatives

MINOT — When North Dakota candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Julie Fedorchak and Democrat Trygve Hammer, sat down for a debate on the Plain Talk podcast with me and my co-host Chad Oban, one of my first questions was why they wanted to be elected to Congress.

Hammer, a Marine Corps veteran, said that’s because fewer than 80 of the current 435 members of the House have served in the military. He also said he wants to foster an atmosphere where politicians talk to each other, rather than past each other.

Fedorchak said she wanted to focus on issues such as border security, “record-high inflation” and energy policy.

One of the last questions I asked them was about their top priorities if elected. Hammer said a new farm bill and the national debt, and that he is “constantly talking to the citizens of North Dakota” and taking his cues from them. Fedorchak responded with citizen service, arguing that even when progress on policymaking stalls, congressmen can be “a force” for individual North Dakotans.

Our debate covered myriad topics, from campaign promises of national candidates to repealing the tax on tips and benefits (Fedorchak would not commit to supporting either; Hammer said he supported both with some reservations), the national debt, decency in politics, and American foreign policy in Ukraine and Gaza.

The candidates were very much in agreement on one point: the need for a new farm bill. Both acknowledged that American agriculture is based on an old, very outdated farm bill.

One area where the candidates differed significantly was on the issue of abortion. When asked about her support for a national ban on abortion—something presidential candidate Donald Trump has opposed—Fedorchak described her position as wanting a national “gestation limit” on abortions at around 15 or 16 weeks, with exceptions for the life of the mother and rape or incest. This “would allow states within that framework to be a little more stringent,” and she argued that it would put the United States in line with “every civilized country in the world.”

Hammer said he does not support a statewide abortion ban, arguing that even state-level bans are often “unnecessarily cruel.” He pointed to the failure of a pro-life ballot proposal in 2014 as evidence that North Dakotans do not want government interference in the abortion issue “at any level.”

The Plain Talk debates are designed to encourage conversations in which candidates can compare and contrast on the issues. As with our previous U.S. Senate debate between Democrat Katrina Christiansen and Republican incumbent Kevin Cramer, Hammer and Fedorchak were polite, gave solid answers and disagreed without being unkind.

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