GRAND FORKS – Gov. Kelly Armstrong says North Dakota’s energy reserves gives it the power to push back against “liberal ideology” in the major tech firms that want to set up data centers in North Dakota.

Tech demand for North Dakota energy means the state can change tech companies’ attitudes toward fossil fuels, socially conscious investment and other issues that “started on Slack chats from employees in Silicon Valley,” Armstrong told attendees at an event at the University of North Dakota.

“We can help reset that narrative, because when they need you to make their next billion dollars in profits, their ideology will change real quick,” Armstrong said to the Grand Forks Herald when asked to clarify his comments.

Armstrong delivered a wide-ranging address to UND’s Memorial Union on Wednesday night before answering questions from students and Grand Forks residents.

He expressed concern about the decline of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights – protection from unreasonable searches and seizures – in the digital era and said people need to have more empathy and understanding for those who disagree with them.

“I’m going to let you in on a little-held view,” he said. “Fifty percent of the country isn’t evil, and 50% of the country isn’t stupid.”

Armstrong visited UND at the behest of the university’s chapter of Turning Point USA. The group’s national arm is well-known for its combative attitude against liberal or left-wing ideas, and advertises itself as empowering Americans to “rise up against the radical left.”

Asked about the group’s politics, Armstrong said he believes in respectful debate and that many of his best friends are liberals.

“I think it’s OK to fight for your ideology. I think how you do it is important,” he said.

Armstrong returned to North Dakota’s energy industry, particularly its oil and gas sector, throughout the evening, praising it for saving a “dying” western North Dakota.

He praised lignite coal as “cheap” and “reliable” and

alluded to long-considered plans

to sue Minnesota for its law requiring its energy suppliers to be 100% carbon-free by 2040.

“Right now, we’re suing them,” Armstrong said in his remarks. “They’re telling us how to produce the energy they need to keep the lights on in Minneapolis. My response? Just say ‘thank you, go produce your own.’”

Armstrong spokesperson Mike Nowatzki later told the Herald in a text message that North Dakota had not filed a lawsuit against its eastern neighbor, but “have warned (Minnesota) that its carbon-free standard is unlawful.”

Energy demand posed by artificial intelligence data center projects the state hopes to attract is expected to exceed the state’s entire production capacity,

the Forum reported

last year.

Around 55% of North Dakota’s energy generation comes from burning coal, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with 36% coming from its next-largest source, wind power.

Armstrong has extensive ties to the oil and gas industry,

ProPublica and the North Dakota Monitor reported last year,

with the governor telling reporters that oil and gas was the source of almost all of his personal income.

Attendees repeatedly raised questions of federal policy with the governor throughout the evening. Armstrong pointed out he has little sway over Congress or the executive branch as a state official, but weighed in on several issues.

In response to one atmospheric sciences student’s concerns about cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, Armstrong said “disruptions have to happen” for the U.S. to address its national debt.

Armstrong said the state would

fund three rural projects that had a combined $20 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency grants pulled

as part of Trump administration cost-cutting.

He characterized the projects as another example of government waste, though, saying that a federal agency “that was here to help Grand Forks in ‘97 after the flood now all of a sudden is handing out grants to build lagoons,” referring to a proposed $1.9 million wastewater lagoon in Fessenden.

He said North Dakota would “help in any capacity we can” to deport undocumented immigrants, but told another attendee he would support congressional efforts

to keep humanitarian parolees from Ukraine in North Dakota from being deported.

He said dismantling the U.S. Education Department was “a good thing for North Dakota,” saying states would be better served by receiving federal education funding directly.

Armstrong indicated, as he has previously, his support for

school choice legislation

in North Dakota but noted he has “two kids in public school and I think they do a fantastic job.”

He did not directly answer a question about whether he would sign a bill requiring school and public libraries to hide materials with “obscene” content from minors – legislation that

some have characterized as censorship

– but said he is a “free speech absolutist” and “fan of the First Amendment.”

“I don’t pretend to know what the next literary masterpiece is, but I want it in a library,” he said.

Joshua Irvine covers K-12 and higher education for the Grand Forks Herald. He can be reached at jirvine@gfherald.com.