I was disappointed in the November 2022 North Dakota election results for three main reasons. I wanted Dr. Rick Becker of Bismarck to replace U.S. Senator John Hoeven, and I wanted Thea Lee of Sentinel Butte to be elected as a District 39 State Representative. Both of these candidates were underdogs, highly Conservative grass-roots Republicans who were forced to run as Independents. And I didn’t want recent college graduate and former Miss America Cara Mund to run at all, especially not for U.S. Representative.

I deliberately did not write any blog articles about Dr. Rick Becker, Thea Lee, and Cara Mund because I didn’t want to unintentionally harm Becker and Lee, and help Cara Mund. In other words, my endorsement of Becker and Lee might have hurt them, and my criticism of Cara Mund might have helped her.

I felt grateful about my decision not to write anything prior to the election, when I soon saw that one of Cara Mund’s primary campaign talking points was that she was being picked on because she was a woman, after supposedly receiving many mean, sexist emails and tweets. In my opinion, this might have had more to do with people not liking Cara Mund, because people around here love female South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.

The reason why I did not want Cara Mund to run for any political office, especially not U.S. Representative, is because she just graduated from college, and in my opinion she doesn’t know anything yet. I think that she doesn’t even know, that she doesn’t know, and this is a very dangerous thing. Ask anybody who has worked anywhere, you have to watch the new-hire so that they don’t hurt themselves or somebody else, because they don’t know that they don’t know.

Cara Mund graduated from Brown University in 2016 with a degree in business, served as Miss America in 2018, and graduated from Harvard Law School in May of 2022. Two months later she announced her candidacy for U.S. House Of Representatives. Though Cara served on boards, committees, associations, and internships, this experience appears to me to be mostly academic. ( In general, I am tired of seeing recent college graduates, especially in politics, trying to suggest that they have what appears to be 20 years of work experience on their resume, eight years in management, eight years in sales, four years in marketing. This doesn’t compute. Did they start working when they were 8 years old, or is this shit made-up? )

The original purpose of elected representatives in the United States, was to represent constituents regarding their concerns and endeavors, to speak and act on their behalf. North Dakota is primarily a blue-collar, low education level, agricultural, oil, natural gas, and coal producing state. In my opinion, Cara Mund is about the furthest thing from these North Dakota constituents. She has not personally experienced first-hand the concerns, problems, difficulties, and struggles of farmers, laborers, trades people, oil field workers, low-skilled, and under-educated working-class people.

Maybe after working at a job in the private sector for a while, starting a family, experiencing many of the same problems as everyone else with employment, pay, bosses, co-workers, housing, mortgage, property taxes, bills, spouse, children, public school, health care, court system, law enforcement, she will be a better candidate to represent North Dakotans. Cara Mund did not win the U.S. Representative election, she lost to incumbent Republican Kelly Armstrong.

On the other hand, in contrast to Cara Mund, first-time political candidate Thea Lee from Sentinel Butte, was very reasonable, appropriate, logical, sensible, solid in her approach and campaign for District 39 North Dakota Representative. Thea’s candidacy made sense, because of what she represents. She is a wife, a mother with five children, former foster parent, and judicial advocate who homeschools her kids. She lives on a ranch in a very rural, remote, sparsely populated area, where she and her husband currently tend 400 goats. Each of these things is very relatable to North Dakotans living in District 39.

Why I was also in favor of Thea Lee, was because like Dr. Rick Becker, she had to temporarily step outside of the Republican Party election system, when the endorsed Republican Party candidate was not who many Conservatives wanted. In my opinion, I did not like the situation where motorhomes and for-hire “party-buses” delivered voters to the District 39 Republican Party nomination meeting, this was very suspicious to me, and I hoped that Thea Lee being elected would undo what I perceived as being wrong. Thea Lee running as an Independent, lost the District 39 Representative election to the endorsed Republican candidate.

The most important election this November of 2022 in North Dakota, was the race for U.S. Senator. The incumbent, Senator John Hoeven, was Governor of North Dakota from 2000-2010, and U.S. Senator from 2011- present. At 65 years of age, ten years as Governor, eleven years as U.S. Senator, net worth $45 million, not always voting very Republican or Conservative, I think that Senator John Hoeven is out-of-touch with the majority of North Dakotans, ordinary North Dakotans, and it’s time for better representation. In my opinion, Senator John Hoeven is like North Dakota’s version of Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell, been there too long and you can see it in the way they act, like they’re Royalty.

Dr. Rick Becker, a plastic surgeon in Bismarck and former State Legislator, is very intelligent, knowledgeable, competent, well-spoken, vocal, confident, and better than energetic, he has a consistent alert temperament. Dr. Rick Becker is very much like U.S. Senator Dr. Rand Paul. Just like U.S. Senator Dr. Rand Paul, Dr. Rick Becker could have had more wealth, a much easier life, and an early retirement if he would have chosen not to become involved in politics. In other words, Dr. Rick Becker is actually giving up much more than he is personally gaining from these campaigns, elections, and serving in public office.

Dr. Rick Becker is more Conservative and committed to Republican Party principles than Senator John Hoeven, as you can see for yourself in these two political rating comparisons http://ratings.conservative.org/people/02d00f0b-b88e-444f-ab65-adb352d5ae69 versus http://ratings.conservative.org/people/H001061 (Source: The Center for Legislative Accountability CLA, an initiative of the Conservative Political Action Coalition CPAC )

Some specific examples of things that Dr. Rick Becker has done to personally “stick his neck out” for Conservative & Republican principles, rather than just try to get along and not rock the boat in the North Dakota Legislature:

• After first being elected to the ND Legislature in 2013, Dr. Rick Becker formed the Bastiat Caucus, named after the limited government political philosopher Frédéric Bastiat, which gathered several dozen members of the North Dakota House, to organize a unified, conservative front on key votes.
• In 2015 Dr. Rick Becker supported a Bill to reduce State Income Tax to 0%.
• In 2015 Dr. Rick Becker introduced a Bill to ban DUI checkpoints. (Unconstitutional)
• In 2017 Dr. Rick Becker introduced a “Constitutional Carry” Bill for firearms, which later passed.
• Dr. Rick Becker worked to achieve Confidential Informant reform, Civil Asset Forfeiture reform, Unmanned Drone Surveillance reform.
• Dr. Rick Becker worked to prohibit teaching Critical Race Theory in ND public schools.
• Dr. Rick Becker worked on legislation during the Covid-19 pandemic stating that North Dakota would only comply with Federal Laws and Executive Orders that North Dakota deemed Constitutional.

I was sorry to see that Dr. Rick Becker did not win the election for U.S. Senator.  I thought that he had a very good chance of doing so.  I don’t know why Forum Communications reporter and columnist Rob Port chose to mock Dr. Rick Becker both prior to and after the election, making statements that Dr. Rick Becker was not as popular or influential as he thought he was.  North Dakotans very much needed someone like Dr. Rick Becker to represent and advocate for average ordinary people.