BISMARCK, N.D. (KFGO) – During the North Dakota Congressional Debate on the Plain Talk Podcast, Republican Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak and Democrat Trygve Hammer discussed agriculture, taxes and the war with Iran.
Hammer said President Donald Trump’s tariffs have made agriculture markets go away. He believes Congress should work on expanding foreign and domestic farm product exports saying North Dakota is the number one state for producing dry edible peas and beans.
“It’s an easily storable food. It’s a very healthy, high fiber protein. We could’ve gotten with MAHA. [Make America Healthy Again] They could’ve decided that was going to be the focus. It would create more of those products and feed more of those products to kids in our schools,” Hammer said.
Republican Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak said she’s worked on legislation that’s become law increasing reference prices and improved crop insurance she believes will help farmers dealing with drought.
“A big policy that the farmers wanted was year-round E-15. In the farm bill, we passed E-15. That creates a lot of, what Trygve’s saying, domestic markets for those products. Farmers do want markets. That’s what they’re growing for,” Fedorchak said.
The farm bill is still under debate in the Senate.
Fedorchak touted the working family tax cuts congress passed also known as the One Big Beautiful Act. It eliminates federal taxes on tips and overtime and extends the Trump tax cuts Congress passed in the president’s first term. Fedorchak says the legislation gave the average North Dakota family a $2,000 tax cut.
“They would’ve all been paying more taxes if we left it up to the Democrats because not a single Democrat voted for the tax cuts. Those tax cuts would’ve expired raising the largest tax increase in history on all Americans,” Fedorchak said.
“The [no] tax on tips ends, the no tax on overtime ends, but the big tax breaks for the very wealthy, those continue on. It doesn’t matter if you take the One Big Beautiful Bill and then rename it the working family tax cuts, it doesn’t change what’s actually in the bill,” Hammer said.
The candidates also shared their thoughts on the war with Iran.
“Congress, if they had been holding this administration more accountable all along, could have kept them from getting into this. I do not believe that once again Iran was two weeks away from getting a nuclear weapon,” Hammer explained. “We have plans in place for all these things and we know what’s going to happen. Turn the map around, you can see… If I was telling Iran what to do, we’ll close the Hormuz Strait, we’d create a broader regional war.”
“No offense Trygve, but the president gets a little more intelligence than you and I even. I sat through classified briefings and have seen some compelling evidence of what they knew Iran was doing,” Fedorchak explained. “Those classified briefings brought me to a comfort position that this was justified action that needed to be taken.”
This debate was recorded and didn’t have an audience.
Hammer agreed to participate in a live debate on “News and Views” moderated by the KFGO News Team and without input from Host Joel Heitkamp. Fedorchak declined.
