Plain Talk: Dem House Candidate Talks About His Campaign, His Issues, and Why Trump Is So Popular in North Dakota

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Zach Raknerud is a young Democrat from Minot – he’s 26 years old and has been involved in state politics for the “better part of five years” – who has filed paperwork with the FEC to campaign for the U.S. House.

He joined me to talk about that on this episode of Plain Talk.

This isn’t his first campaign. He ran for the North Dakota House of Representatives in a Minot-area district in 2018. He says if he’s elected to the U.S. House, he’d like to diminish the influence of corporations by publicly funding elections, institute a Medicare-for-all health care system, and focus on issues impacting America’s “working man.”

Something he credits President Donald Trump with doing very well. Raknerud agreed with me when I suggested that a lot of Democrats don’t appreciate Trump’s appeal even to a particular faction of Democrats.

“Trump really did a good job of talking to the working class,” Raknerud told me, which he says isn’t something a lot of people in his party do all that well these days.

Raknerud also said that, while he sees climate change as a threat, Democrats need to take a less hardline position when it comes to sources of energy like oil, natural gas, and even coal.

If he wins his party’s nomination, he’ll take on incumbent Republican Kelly Armstrong, who is finishing out his first term in office and intends to run for another. No other Democrats have announced a campaign for the U.S. House, though Fargo area state Rep. Ruth Buffalo is widely rumored to be considering it.

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