PEKIN, N.D. (March, 19, 2026) – As the winter season drew to a close on a warm, sunny afternoon at the Pekin Community Center, residents gathered for a get-together, partaking of hot soup and tasty snacks while engaging in civil discussion with three Democratic candidates, one of whom is making a bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, while the others are running for office in the North Dakota State Legislature.
Trygve Hammer, who ran for Congress in 2024, is seeking the seat once again. “The big thing I’ve been running on is that we need Congress to do its job,” he said. “In the last cycle when I ran, I said that Congress had ceded too much authority to the executive branch already. And now we see that they’re basically doing nothing, and so you and I have no voice in Congress when it comes to something like attacking Iran.”
Going up against Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak, Hammer feels his chances of victory are good. “We’ve been all around the state, and one thing all the Republicans have pretty much on their side is name recognition,” he said. “Well, I’m starting to get that now, because I’ve come back and run again. So, we are getting there, and people are very unhappy and paying more attention right now. That helps us.”
Hammer added that he feels more connected to the everyday concerns of fellow North Dakotans, as a Velva High School graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy with a subsequent military background, as well as having worked in the oil fields, railroads and education. “I’m not insulated by wealth, so I feel it as things change,” he said.
After attendees enjoyed their fill of a warm meal, several volunteers opened the discussion with a rendition of the folk protest song, “If I Had a Hammer,” with amended lyrics for the U.S. House candidate in attendance, who later addressed the gathering. He told the audience how his father had died the night before he was going to announce his candidacy run from Fargo. “The campaign got off to a kind of a little bit of a bump in the road there, and so now we’re getting back on, and we’re getting ramped up on our fundraising,” Hammer said.
Hammer talked to the crowd of growing dissatisfaction in the state, saying that he had never attended a protest until last summer, when he began getting more and more requests to speak at rallies. He also noted that his 2026 campaign has been slowly gaining ground, from when only a few people had originally attended to more and more in attendance with corresponding growth in fundraising. “Things have definitely changed,” he said, citing how he and his campaign team had recently been in Bismarck at a conservative-leaning TV station. “They asked us to leave a dozen yard signs.”
He also cited his opponent’s recent declining approval numbers. “There was a poll where Julie Fedorchak was at 42% approval,” he said. “And that was before Renee Goode was killed. That was before Alex Pretti was killed. That was before we bombed Iran.”
“And that’s because they aren’t on the inside in Republican politics,” Hammer said, referring to disgruntled voters. “They’re not rich, and they feel like no one’s listening to them.”
John Kelly, who is running for the State Senate seat in District 29, was encouraged by today’s turnout, though he surmised that there might have been more people if not for the ongoing high school basketball championship games with local teams like Nelson County, Four Winds/Minnewaukan and Devils Lake in contention.
What inspired Kelly to run for office? “The straw that broke the camel’s back was how our representatives from District 29 voted on school lunches.”
On Jan. 23, the State Senate voted down House Bill 1624, which would have provided up to $65 million to fund free school breakfasts and lunches for every student in the state. Having passed in the House the previous day, the vote was 24 against, 22 in favor. “It was a two-vote difference,” Kelly said, adding that his District 29 opponent, Republican incumbent State Sen. Terry Wanzek voted against the bill. A measure for free school meals is now likely to appear on the ballot in November.
Kelly also took issue with Wanzek, a farmer with 15,000 acres, over his proposal to loosen restrictions against corporate ownership in the corporate farming law, intended to protect family farms. Voters ultimately overturned the proposal, maintaining the state’s stance against corporate farming.
“And the other thing that Terry voted for himself was a per diem hike,” Kelly said, referring to State Senate Bill 2084, which amends the lodging reimbursement rates for legislators and increases the maximum monthly reimbursement from 70% to 85% of the daily lodging rate. “So, it’s fine if he gets food and room, but North Dakota kids…”
Diane Norris, who is running for the North Dakota House seat in District 29, said she was prompted to run for office by many of the same issues as her fellow candidates. “With the federal government abdicating a lot of their duties, pushing it back onto the states, the state government is that much more important in order to support our families,” she said.
As an example, Norris cited the need for potential disaster relief after weather occurences like the windstorms from last year. “The local farms and the local people need support, and that’s why it’s important to have someone who wants to be paying attention the local economy and hearing the voices of everyone,” she said.
“I talked to a person from a USDA loan office,” Hammer said. “She went from five people in that office down to two. Three people that took the buyout were the most experienced people. … Also in USDA Rural Development, they’ve been cut in more than half, and North Dakota ag producers rely on USDA, and when they need USDA, they should have someone knowledgeable there to help them.”
“This is what happens when you don’t follow the process, when Congress doesn’t assert their authority,” he added, referring to when DOGE made massive cuts to government infrastructure. “They actually cost more than they saved, and they made the government less efficient.”
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