MINOT — "I'm sympathetic to what they're doing while recognizing there's a better way to do it." Those are the words of Jason Bohrer, president of the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council, an advocacy and lobbying group that represents the state's coal industry. He was speaking on this episode of Plain Talk about the Midwest Carbon Express pipeline proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions. That project has no ties to the coal industry. Rather, it seeks to bring carbon emissions gathered from ethanol plans across the upper midwest to North Dakota where it would be buried underground. Bohrer joined ..read more

MINOT — This morning, we are greeted with the news that Rep. Marjorie Taylor "Moscow Marge" Greene, the former crossfit coach who has become Vladimir Putin's greatest ally in Congress, will launch an effort to unseat fellow Republican Rep. Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. “Mike Johnson is not capable of that job. He has proven it over and over again,” Greene said, per the Washington Post. “Now we have [Democratic leader] Hakeem Jeffries coming out over and over again, embracing Mike Johnson with a warm hug and a big wet sloppy kiss...they want to keep the band together.” The breaking p ..read more

MINOT — You don't need me to tell you that North Dakota is a Republican state. It hasn't always been that way. Roll back the clocks to 2008, and you would find that our state had an all-Democratic delegation to Congress. But in the here and now, our state's political winds blow to the right. Republicans hold every statewide elected office and 125 of the 141 seats in the state Legislature. Democrats haven't won a statewide election in more than a decade. For better or worse, to win an election in North Dakota, it's necessary to associate yourself with the North Dakota Republican Party. T ..read more

FARGO — Kevin Cramer is the first Republican in his lifetime to hold his U.S. Senate seat. At 63 years old, Cramer has been actively involved in state GOP politics for over 40 years and vividly remembers the late 1980s, when he worked for the state Republican party and Democrats held most of North Dakota’s state and federal elected offices. So, during this year’s GOP state convention in Fargo, Cramer found himself spending a lot of time warning his fellow Republicans not to be over-assured going into the 2024 election, despite the party’s dominance over the last few cycles. “It’s one of t ..read more

MINOT — Amid the punditocracy's various hot takes about the bizarrely self-reported news that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem executed her puppy for, uh, being a puppy, is one that I desperately hope is wrong. Some have argued that Noem wrote about this episode of pupicide in her forthcoming memoir to shore up her MAGA-world qualifications. Disgraced former President Donald Trump's movement is one that indisputably honors ruthlessness, and Noem, who wants to be Trump's running mate, characterizes the murder of her dog as evidence of her tough-minded willingness to ruthlessly do what needs doing ..read more

BISMARCK — Two state lawmakers are expected to testify in a lawsuit challenging North Dakota’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors after a judge last week resolved a dispute over whether the legislators could be ordered to speak about the law. Attorneys for Gender Justice, the advocacy group representing the plaintiffs, last month sought to subpoena Rep. Bill Tveit, R-Hazen, and Rep. Brandon Prichard, R-Bismarck, for depositions related to social media posts the lawmakers made discussing the ban and LGBTQ issues in North Dakota. Tveit was the primary sponsor of the 2023 legislation, whi ..read more

MINOT — Have you ever received a flyer in the mail from a member of your congressional delegation touting services available for veterans? Or asking you to fill out a survey about some hot-button issue? That mailing, or broadcast ad, or digital ad, may have been paid for by the taxpayers through a process called "franking." Originally, franking was intended to facilitate members of Congress communicating to their constituents through the mail, though it's been expanded over the years to include things like radio and social media ads. In the House of Representatives, franked communications hav ..read more

MINOT — State Rep. Brandon Prichard is a first-term Republican lawmaker from Bismarck who, just a few years removed from high school, has already become a recognizable name in North Dakota thanks to his caustic and often extreme style of politics, including his campaigns against traditional Republican lawmakers and his vile and bigoted posts on social media. Prichard, along with fellow incumbent Rep. SuAnn Olson, is facing a primary challenge in District 8 from Republicans Mike Berg and Ken Rensch, and they're making an issue out of some of Prichard's more extreme comments. In a Facebook vi ..read more

WASHINGTON — Kristi Noem, a contender to become Republican Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate, defended herself on Friday against Democratic attacks over her account of shooting a dog on her family farm. Noem, the governor of South Dakota, describes killing an "untrainable" dog called Cricket which she "hated" in an upcoming memoir, excerpts of which were first published by The Guardian on Friday, April 26. She also said she shot to death a goat. Noem said the dog ruined a hunt and later attacked chickens owned by a local family, behaved like a "trained assassin," and was "danger ..read more

MINOT — It's been clear for a while that Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller's campaign has wanted to make an issue out of her gubernatorial primary opponent Kelly Armstrong's legal career. Gov. Doug Burgum, who endorsed Miller as his successor, was already working in references to Armstrong as a "lawyer" in media interviews in early March. The Miller campaign has also been poll-testing attacks on Armstrong's work as a defense attorney, asking voters how they feel about Armstrong defending clients guilty of heinous crimes like spousal and child abuse. Most recently, in a statement the Miller campaign gav ..read more