NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — On episode 12 of The Voice of the People podcast, Nicholas Quallich spoke with North Dakota Dem-NPL endorsed congressional candidate Trygve Hammer. Hammer spoke about why he is running again for office, how his military experience would do him well in Congress, as well as what issues he says he'd tackle on day one if elected. Below is a transcript of the podcast: Nicholas Quallich: Hello and thank you for joining us for The Voice of the People podcast here on KXNET.com. I'm Nicholas Quallich. Today, we are focusing on the race for Congress. Joining me to talk about that is the North Dakota Democratic Nonpartisan League endorsed candidate, Trygve Hammer. Mr. Hammer, thanks for joining me. Trygve Hammer: Glad to be here with you, Nicholas. Quallich: So I've asked all the other candidates, how does that sound to you to be the endorsed candidate? Hammer: You know, it's kind of exciting. My grandfather was a Republican NPL state legislator and the back of his campaign card said vote for these three progressive Republican men, which is not something you find these days, progressive Republican men. But I, so I have a little bit of background in it or a little bit of heritage and I love North Dakota and it's pretty exciting to be the endorsed candidate. Quallich: Sure, now you've run in previous races before, specifically Public Service Commission and for the House, but for those candidates, for those who are viewers who may not know much more than that about you, tell us a little bit more about yourself. Hammer: I, well, you know, I grew up in Velva. As I approached graduating from high school, I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I ended up joining the Navy. I was a Navy nuclear power guy. One of my friends in nuclear power school was wanting to go to the Naval Academy. When I found out what that was, I applied too. I got there, graduated four years later with a degree in chemistry at commission as a Marine Corps officer and went on to be a helicopter pilot. I've been a forward air controller. I went to Iraq in 2003 as an infantry officer. Did some other security work and came back here in 2016. I taught 712 science up in Granville for three years. Went out, worked as a roughneck on work over rigs in the Bakken. Was recently a freight rail conductor for a little over a year and now I'm a counselor over at Job Corps. Quallich: Okay, so how do you think that translates into your run for, first on the primary, and then if you pass the primary, then into Congress, possibly? Hammer: Well, I think I bring a different perspective. I bring a very broad perspective. I have a strong defense background and I have this, I have worked in places where most politicians haven't. There was a survey recently released that, of 7,300, I think it was, state legislators across the country, only 1.6% or about 116 of them have worked in manual labor or clerical or union work. And people who work in those fields make up 50% of the workforce, but they're represented by people who have not recently or currently been in those kind of jobs. So, I think I bring a really different perspective to it, a very kind of independent perspective, because I haven't been in this political game for long. I've been more about service and leadership for my entire career. Quallich: And I know, at least for the primary, you're up against Roland Riemers. He's run for several different offices before. What makes you different than him as far as what you believe in as far as on the Democratic side of things? Hammer: You know I really have not looked at everything that I haven't looked at his policy positions and where we might disagree very much. You know I have done the work of going around for years now going around to different district conventions and this year I made it to as many as I could. I've done all the networking. I've been doing the fundraising. And now it's his turn to do that if he wants to catch up. But I'm pretty confident that we will win this thing. Quallich: So let's say you get past the primary and you do make it on the ballot to run against, as you know, there's quite a crowded field on the Republican side for the primaries. But let's say, in fact, you do become elected and become our next congressman here for North Dakota. What's priority day number one for you? Hammer: Priority one is to get there and make the connections and build the relationships that are necessary for getting anything done, really. And then we have some big issues we need to cover. We need to fully fund Social Security. We need to tackle the debt. And we need to do those things in a way that doesn't hurt those working people, those people people who can't afford to make big campaign donations and have been kind of left out of the discussion. I think we also need to do a piece on election security and election rights. I think the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would get that through and then we can do a piece also to satisfy those who don't believe in the system or are cynical about the voting system. Quallich: So how do you take some of those issues, starting from step number one, for example, fully funding Social Security? Hammer: All right, fully funding Social Security, that's one of those issues where one way to do it, and a lot of Republicans have suggested this, is to raise the retirement age. But that actually punishes those working class people, those people on the lower end of the spectrum because, in addition to having less in their bank accounts, they tend to live shorter lives. They tend to die at a younger age. So they will never collect that Social Security. So it does not make sense to have them wait longer to get it. What you could do is remove the caps because Social Security is only, your income is only taxed for Social Security up to a certain amount. I forget the exact amount, but we could remove that cap and that would solve 61% of the problem immediately. And then the other problem with raising the retirement age is that it doesn't have an immediate effect, it takes it further down the road. Quallich: And of course, you know, I don't have to tell you that on both sides of the aisle for the office of the president, you know, we mentioned before it kind of starts with the top-down affecting how people perceive the election, whether they're interested, maybe they're not interested. Maybe they like the candidates. How do you appeal to those people who may be sort of ambivalent to either former President Trump or current President Joe Biden? Hammer: Oh, there, you know, there is a lot of ambivalence out there. What I hear a lot on the campaign trail is, you know, these are our choices, really. But the thing to know or the thing I feel is that we have given too much power to the executive. There are too many things that are being done by executive order. Our last two big conflicts, I went to Iraq in 2003, my brother went to Afghanistan, but both of those, there was never a declared war.Because Congress does not want to step up and do its job, or if they're too busy arguing to really get things done. We need to take some of that power back to the legislative branch. Quallich: But they just got done that big package to Ukraine. Correct? Hammer: Yes, we did. And that's very interesting to look at the dynamic there. The way we got that done was Mike Johnson was threatened to be unseated by those on the right wing of the Republican Party. And the Democrats said, well, if you'll go along with us on this, we will protect your speakership. So, there's a really interesting dynamic at play there right now. Quallich: And speaking of dynamics, obviously, I had talked to some people before, and of course, we've been hearing all this throughout the last four to eight years. There are not only risks in the Republican Party, but there's also risks in the Democratic Party as far as how far left a candidate may be. So what kind of Democrats or how would you describe yourself as far as a Democratic ideas do you believe in? Hammer: You know I think I kind of sit in that blue dog caucus kind of area you know pretty moderate and if you look at North Dakota Democrats in general you'll see that you know if you went to our convention, there was pretty broad agreement. There were some disagreements on minor issues and things that would be in the platform because there are always disagreements about that. But most of that stuff was missed because the Republican convention going on at the same time in the same city was, it was crazy enough to be drawing all the press. But I think we got pretty broad agreement. We're pro-energy and we're pro-defense. We believe in that strong America. We believe in Ronald Reagan's shining city on the hill. Quallich: So you mentioned pro-energy, of course, one of the big topics being talked about here, at least in the Bismarck area and around the state, I suppose, as well, too, is the pipeline. Your thoughts on that? Hammer: Are we talking the summit carbon capture pipeline? Quallich: Yes. Hammer: That was a big issue when I was running for the PSC. In general, I think carbon capture is a good idea. And I like the idea of using CO2 for oil reclamation. I am not so sure about a pipeline running from all these states coming into North Dakota and just being pumped into the ground. I think there are some things we got to do to do it right. And most of the disgruntled people I talked to were landowners. They feel put upon, they feel like eminent domain may be exercised on them and they don't want, they're afraid that, and this is a thing that could happen is better technology will come along and all of a sudden they're going to have abandoned infrastructure on their land. And also the process is not very, for getting these leases, it's not very transparent. And the state legislature could actually fix that. They could create a database where you could go look and see what kind of land that pipeline was crossing, how much that landowner was being paid for what length of pipeline going through his land. And that could bring landowners together and so they could get a better deal. And then the other thing I heard a lot was this is just a big government money grab, you know, because it's carbon tax credits that are coming from the U.S. government. And some people had some real heartburn with that. Quallich: Of course, another big issue, not just locally, but also nationally, has been something that I think most people never thought would be changed in their lifetime. And that's, of course, with the whole Roe v. Wade decision, specifically pro-choice. Most Democrats align themselves with that belief. Where do you fall? Hammer: Yeah, and we see it basically as a personal liberty issue. But, you know, I can respect those people on the other side. If you think that life is life and life begins at conception, I can respect that. I have a little less respect for those people who say life is life, life begins at conception, but IVF is popular, so we need to maintain power. Or, you know, one legislator, at least one legislator in Alabama said, well, life is like begins at conception, but, you know, or at implantation. So what you're saying then is, you know, life, we don't, when it's, when it's the embryo, a frozen embryo, that's no big deal. But as soon as it becomes part of a woman's body, then the government can intervene. And I just see that as interference. And the other thing is, you know, we have these principled people with those beliefs, but Pro-Life Inc. does not hold them. They're willing to give up on those principles to hold on to power. And so you saw that Alabama legislator talking about, oh, it's implantation now. And like I said, I can respect the people, I respect people's beliefs, and what mine is that this is a personal liberty issue. Quallich: So we mentioned your priority is day number one, but what are you hearing as far as your constituents or potential constituents who say, hey, Trygve, if you get elected, we need you to tackle this right away? What are they saying? Hammer: There are a number of things. I'm hearing a lot about access to affordable housing because post pandemic, we had wages rise kind of across the board, about 17%, but housing costs went up 30 to 40% where the prices of homes and then rent has come up. So people are having trouble getting access to affordable, reliable housing. Second thing I hear a lot about is childcare. People want to go to work. We need more people in the workforce, but those younger people cannot find childcare. And one of the things we're missing is teachers. We need more teachers. Well, my mom ran a childcare, a daycare out of our house when I was growing up, and all of her clients were teachers over at Velva Public School. So we need to fix that. And then a final thing, well there's health care, access to health care, but access to long-term care. I've been hearing a lot about that. We've had facilities closing down. It's hard to find CNAs and nurses to man those facilities and it's a looming problem. Quallich: And so how do you do that? I know one of the big ideas for I don't know how many years now has always been tax that top, tax the wealthy in other words, tax that 1% or so on. Is that really the only feasible way to do it as far as debt, or can you provide more substantive, let's say, tax breaks to the middle class, perhaps? Hammer: Well, you can kind of do both. You can provide tax cuts to those particular services, too, child care providers and such, and provide them more assistance through the SNAP and WIC programs. But also, yes, we can restore some of those taxes on the big corporations and on the higher income earners in order to get that back. You know, the economy was really going full steam in 2017 when we had the last big tax cut. And tax cuts are supposed to be stimulative, but they're only stimulative when the economy is slow, when it's suffering. So what happened when these corporations got these tax cuts was they did stock buybacks. They did, they sent out more dividends. So instead of doing those capital investments that would have spurred the economy, we got that. And, you know, Mitch McConnell said that that tax law would be at worst revenue neutral. And it turned out that he was very wrong because that is what happened. We didn't get that capital investment. And so we never reached that. So then the deficit skyrocketed. Quallich: And, you know, in addition to that, you mentioned the COVID pandemic, there are unfortunately were some people that wound up abusing the COVID stimulus money. So as a potential lawmaker, how would you foresee preventing something like that happening in the future? Not to say that, you know, we'll live through another pandemic in our lifetime, but how would you sort of integrate some sort of punishment for those trying to abuse government money? Hammer: You know, I think for that, we're gonna need to spend a little bit more money on enforcement. And I think, I hope that next time we are more prepared. We sent out that money and we should probably have more accountability on what was actually done with it and whether people, people should have to prove that that money was useful and they used it in a way that helped more than them, helped their business, helped their employees before those things can be forgiven. Otherwise, they should be paid back. Quallich: Speaking of enforcing, another big topic right now is the border, specifically the southern border. What in your mind has gone wrong and what are you looking at possibly doing sort of a line or maybe potential fellow congresspeople as far as aligning yourself with them? What are you possibly looking into doing to help sort of alleviate that issue? Hammer: Well, the bill that got shot down in the House would have gone a long way towards fixing the issue. We need more agents. I think it would have supplied 4,300 agents looking at asylums. We could have processed it a lot faster. It would have spent more money on detectors and personnel at the border. Encounters are up 250%, but when you look at those encounters, every time you cross the border, that's an encounter. So it isn't all just people coming across the river. Another issue with that is, you know, two people are talking about fentanyl coming across, but that is coming across at those ports of entry, not from the people trying to escape where they were to get into the United States for a better life. For one thing, the drug runners wouldn't trust them to be their meals. And the final thing is we really need to solve the problem before it arrives at the border. We can have better visa processes, more robust visa processes in the countries where these folks are coming from so that they can see an option there so that it is not so tempting to make this dangerous trip all the way up to the U.S. border. Quallich: What about a wall? Hammer: I think a wall is, one, inefficient and, two, you're not going to stop the fentanyl. And you're really, if you have a wall, you also need to have observation on that wall all the time. So, you know, if we were to have, when you create an obstacle in battle, you put eyes on that obstacle. So that obstacle is the first thing, but we know people are going to breach an obstacle. So we put eyes on it and then we have artillery or whatever ready to when that enemy is stopped to, you know, to hit them hard. That's the part that would be missing with that. And there's environmental concerns, there's landowner concerns. It would just be a, you know, another big project, another big thing to maintain. Hammer: Speaking of maintaining, of course, you mentioned earlier, we talked about it. I mean, I want to touch on it a little bit more if we might. Just people looking for jobs, but at the same time, we have a lot of open jobs. Now, I know two or three years ago, I talked with our workforce here, and they basically said a lot of people, specifically in hospitality and so on, a lot of those people working those jobs, that was their second or third job, and they just decided for whatever reason, whether their spouse was making enough money or they wanted to do something else, that they just didn't need that second job. So, talk about what you've heard as far as what your understanding is, some of the reasons why people are deciding not to fill those jobs, and how do we encourage people to maybe take up some of those jobs that are still hanging out, that are apparently very desperately needed? Hammer: Well, it's really kind of supply and demand. And you can talk about those jobs as frontline workers again, and those jobs were celebrated during the pandemic, and they were the ones still out there, and the pay raises didn't hit as much for them as they did for a lot of other people. And what you're seeing now is we have legal immigrants coming in on visas and working here. We have thousands of people doing that in North Dakota. They're working in ag. They're working in hospitality. They're teaching our kids in school, and they're working in our hospitals. And that is part of the solution is a process to get them in and able to work. And the great thing about it, I was talking to an immigration lawyer. And what she told me was that, you know, without these immigrants across the United States working and paying into Social Security, but never collecting it, Social Security would pretty much collapse. So there, you know, we need immigrants to come in and work and we need to be through that legal process. It helps them, it helps, and it helps us fill those positions. Quallich: Do you think, or to what extent do you believe North Dakotans, and I suppose Americans as why so many are coming in from the southern border without the proper processes? Do you think it's because of the fact that they are, most of them are fleeing from danger? Or tell me about what your thoughts as far as, you know, how well everybody seems to understand it. Hammer: Well, you know, they're obviously, you don't make that long trek over land unless you're fleeing something. And it's, you know, they're fleeing poverty, they're fleeing violence, they're in a position that's unlivable, they want something better for their kids, and they're desperate enough to make that long trek up to the border. And how much do people understand that? When you're campaigning, you come to learn that, you know, maybe 20% of people are really engaged in the dukes. They only really hear the stuff that gets shouted the loudest. So probably not a lot of people understand exactly what's going on in those countries and what's the primary source driving it. And the other thing is North Dakotans don't want extreme measures. North Dakotans, you get the feeling that Governor Abbott could sit there at the Rio Grande and watch people drown in the Rio Grande all day, but North Dakotans aren't like that. They want a solution that's humane. They understand that we cannot otherize the people who are coming up to our border. We need to see them as human beings and treat them in that way. Quallich: So, as I mentioned, you've been through this before as far as running for an office or position. So what have you learned about getting more voters out there and engaging them in the issues and kind of helping them to make the best choice for not only themselves, but for others namely North Dakotans? Hammer: Well one thing I found is that it takes a lot of money because you have to get some of that paid media out there You know I can talk to you. I can talk to radio hosts all day I can you know the last couple of years I've spoken at Memorial Day up at Rose Hill Cemetery here in Minot, and I've done other speaking events out in town, been on the cover of the Minot Daily on the front page, you know, four different times at least, but 90% of the people in Minot wouldn't know who I am right now. So we have to get that paid advertising out there. And what I really need to do is connect and get people to know my story. I found that after 2022, I got more votes than any other Democrat in the state in that election for PSC. But as I went around working around the state after that, I would meet people and they'd say, well, I'd have voted for you if I'd have known you. And that was on me. I didn't raise enough money to get that paid media out there to get my name recognition, get my story out there. And then we can start talking positions. Quallich: So I suppose if you do get through the primary, what are your next steps to make sure you get up to and even past November? Hammer: We're just gonna keep doing what we're doing, plugging hard. If you look at the fundraising monies from that first quarter of 2024, we didn't make the most money, but we also, I didn't loan hundreds of thousands of dollars of my personal wealth to my campaign because I don't have that to spare. And when you look at our numbers, we had $183,000 in un-itemized contributions. So contributions of $200 or less. So over $183,000 worth of those. The next runner-up was Rick Becker with $9,000 and then Julie Fedorchak had $6,000. So $183,000 versus $9,000 and $6,000. And that's what our campaign is like. We're going out there getting those small-dollar donors and just working as hard as we can and we're gonna continue to do that. Quallich: Well, as we kind of wind up here, Mr. Hammer, I'll let you sort of have the floor and kind of wrap it up and let people know what you want to tell them. Hammer: What I want to tell them is I am a native North Dakotan, that I love this place and I always have. My kids love it. And one thing I get in trouble for sometimes is sometimes is not talking about my kids. My son, Adam, went to the Naval Academy like I did. He was on a couple of combat tours, or not combat tours, but on combat ships in the West Coast. Now the Navy's putting him through medical school at George Washington University. So doing pretty well for himself. My next child, Allie, is out on the West Coast. Her husband is on an aircraft carrier and she's going into social work. And then my youngest is going to start graduate school at George Washington University. So they should probably change George Washington University to the Trygve Hammer University after this. Quallich: Well, if there's nothing else, Mr. Hammer, I wanna thank you for taking the time to speak with me I know the road is long to get to where you are and I'm as it is with all the other candidates And I know you know, there's a lot to consider So I really again, thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about who you are And thank you so much for watching the voice of the people podcast here on kxnet.com Be sure to tune in soon for more questions and answers affecting you, because remember, it's your voice that matters: The Voice of the People. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Today's Top Stories SIGN UP NOW