Candidates for North Dakota’s lone U.S. House seat square off in debate

BISMARCK — Because the midterm elections inch nearer, candidates for North Dakota’s lone seat within the U.S. Home of Representatives tried to distinguish themselves throughout a Tuesday night time, Sept. 27 debate in Bismarck.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong and Unbiased challenger Cara Mund squared off within the debate, which was aired on and hosted by Prairie Public with help from the AARP of North Dakota. The pair mentioned quite a few points together with abortion, pupil loans, Social Safety and inflation.

Mund has beforehand mentioned she would doubtless caucus with Republicans if elected, however mentioned Tuesday that the ball can be within the Republicans’ court docket and questioned whether or not she would even be welcome within the social gathering.

“Issues that make us totally different is that I see girls as equals. I see girls as they’ve the appropriate to make their very own well being care choices,” mentioned Mund, a former Miss North Dakota and the state’s first Miss America.

Mund, who obtained a level from Brown College and is a latest graduate of Harvard Regulation College, mentioned she would have voted for the PACT Act, which gives further protection for veterans who have been uncovered to poisonous burn pits throughout navy service.

The 28-year-old added she would have additionally voted for the toddler components appropriations act, which might give the FDA entry to funds to extend employees accountable for components inspection earlier than it’s despatched out to suppliers.

Armstrong mentioned he voted for the ultimate model of the PACT Act, which was signed into regulation by President Joe Biden earlier this yr, and felt the funds given to the FDA would have gone to directors, not the place the cash is really wanted.

He additionally challenged Mund on her means to enter Congress as an unbiased.

“I believe we’ve to be slightly clearer about what unbiased means,” Armstrong mentioned. “You don’t get to decide on the place you go in D.C., they’ve to ask you.”

He mentioned independents haven’t any mechanism for committee assignments and not using a social gathering, resulting in potential ineffectiveness.

Mund, who was additionally important of Armstrong’s help for former President Donald Trump if he runs in 2024, mentioned she gained’t have a celebration chief and particular curiosity teams inform her how one can vote.

“I’m going to place North Dakota first,” she mentioned.

Armstrong responded that he has by no means been instructed how one can vote, and that he votes the best way he thinks is correct.

Mark Haugen, the previous Democratic-NPL Occasion candidate for the place, dropped out of the race originally of September, saying he obtained stress from Dem-NPL Occasion leaders “and different activists on the far left to step away,” after Mund entered the race. Haugen mentioned that components of the social gathering have been involved about his pro-life place.

Abortion and the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade was the primary subject of Tuesday’s debate.

The choice activated North Dakota’s set off regulation, which might make most abortions unlawful within the state. However the regulation has but to enter impact after a request for a preliminary injunction made by the Purple River Girls’s Clinic, previously the state’s solely abortion clinic till a latest transfer to Moorhead, was granted

once more final week by a Burleigh County decide

.

Armstrong mentioned the excessive court docket’s determination was “precisely proper,” including he has been pro-life his whole life and the query isn’t in regards to the legality or illegality of abortion, however about giving energy to the states to do what they assume is finest.

“Personally I am pro-life, however simply extra from a philosophical and coverage standpoint, these choices are finest left at state degree.”

Mund has beforehand mentioned that the choice to overturn Roe v. Wade is what made her resolve to run for the Home within the first place. Tuesday, she mentioned the choice treats girls “like second class residents” and places the “authorities within the place of (girls’s) bedrooms” and their docs appointments.

“Simply since you are pro-choice doesn’t imply that you’re not pro-life,” Mund mentioned. “We have now to cease that narrative. It is a girls’s well being care subject.”

The candidates at the very least partially agreed on Biden’s determination to forgive as much as $20,000 in pupil loans.

Armstrong feels the $420 million expense wouldn’t assist the mortgage holders who want essentially the most assist and known as it a “redistribution of wealth from working class blue collar People to pay for Ivy League training for individuals who aren’t doing it.”

“I see it as a Band-Support to the true subject,” Mund mentioned, including she believes Congress ought to think about insurance policies that concentrate on rates of interest for pupil loans.

Election Day is Nov. 8, with absentee ballots accessible on Sept. 29 and early voting held the week prior.

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, which was finished in collaboration with the League of Girls Voters of Minnesota and of North Dakota.