493: 'I have not heard in 12 years that families are asking us for more Christianity'

Plain Talk

Kirsten Baesler has been the elected Superintendent of North Dakota's Public Schools for nearly 12 years. She's now seeking a fourth term.

Before each of her previous three elections to this office, she sought and received the North Dakota Republican Party's endorsement. She sought it again this year, but was denied it by the convention's delegates by a wide margin.

They instead chose home schooling advocate James Bartlett, who has campaigned on bringing the 10 commandments and other Christian tenets to our state's public schools.

On this episode of Plain Talk, Baesler told my co-host Chad Oban and I about her experiences at the state convention, Bartlett's push for more religion in schools, and why voters should give her a fourth term in office.

"I have not heard in 12 years that families are asking us for more Christianity," she said.

She added that she sought the NDGOP's endorsement knowing full well "things had shifted quite a bit in the Republican party" toward a new sort of populism. She said that whether or not to seek the endorsement at the convention was "weighing" on her mind. "I decided in the end I was going," she said. "I needed to make my case."

Also on this episode, we discuss the politics around North Dakota's five-way Republican U.S. House primary that now features a traditional Republican in Public Service Commisisoner Julie Fedorchak, a populist Republican in former state lawmaker Rick Becker, former Miss America Cara Mund who campaigned against a Republican House incumbent as an independent last cycle, and two newcomer candidates, Alex Balazs and Sharlet Mohr.

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