Democratic-NPL U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer speaks with voters during an event at the North Dakota Kennedy Center in Bismarck on July 30, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
(Michale Achterling – North Dakota Monitor) -Democratic-NPL Party U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer ranked passing an updated farm bill as his first priority if elected to represent North Dakota in Washington.
Hammer is taking on Republican candidate Julie Fedorchak for the state’s open U.S. House seat this November. U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong is not seeking reelection, instead running for governor.
Hammer, Minot, is a military veteran with a varied work background, including working in the Bakken oil fields, as a science teacher in Granville and as a freight rail conductor in Minot.
While the farm bill is his top priority, Hammer said in an interview with the North Dakota Monitor, next on his list would be addressing Social Security insolvency and fixing the country’s immigration and border security problems.
Hammer also touched on how he would increase energy production and his views on tariffs.
Farm bill
Raising reference prices will be an important part of the new farm bill, Hammer said. Other portions of the bill must be better targeted to help family farms and ranches, as well as new people looking to get into agriculture.
“Right now, the biggest barrier for beginning farmers is access to land because land prices are high,” Hammer said.
He also wants the new bill to incentivize more competition in the meat processing industry in hopes of creating more options for producers and getting away from reliance on the largest processors.
“Four of them control 85% of meat processing in this country,” he said.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the country’s reliance on those processors, which led to bottlenecks that hurt producers and consumers.
“There’s just consolidation in every industry and we really need to look at that and make sure everything we do incentivizes more competition,” he said.
Social Security
Hammer said he wants to remove the taxable income cap for Social Security, which is $168,600 for 2024, so income earned beyond that point would still be subject to Social Security taxes and increase the fund.
“We need to shore that up for North Dakotans because I couldn’t imagine going through the pandemic again without Social Security and without Medicare,” Hammer said.
He also said he opposes raising the retirement age for Social Security benefits.
Immigration
Hammer said passing the bipartisan border security bill would be a great first step to addressing immigration concerns by providing additional Border Patrol agents. He also blamed Republicans for blocking the bill in the first place.
“They didn’t have the guts to stand up to party and person,” he said. “It had all the things they wanted in it and they shot it down so they could campaign on it.”
He added forming better partnerships with countries in Central America and South America to adjudicate asylum claims before migrants make the trek to the southern U.S. border would limit illegal crossings into the country and be safer for the migrants.
Tariffs
Tariffs should be targeted and only used to protect fledgling American industries, Hammer said.
He also said every time the U.S. applies tariffs for imported goods, countries usually respond with their own retaliatory tariffs, or policies that can hurt American industries, such as agriculture.
“Across-the-board tariffs are just really a bad idea,” he said. “Other countries know they hurt us by targeting our ag industry, so we know we’re going to get more retaliatory tariffs if we do that and we’re going to lose even more market share around the world, and Brazil and these other countries are happy to step in and sell more where the United States isn’t.”
More than $16 billion in subsidies were issued to farmers in 2019 to help offset the loss of agricultural market share from the 2018 tariffs, according to the USDA.
“Our producers, our farmers, our ranchers, they want to be out there and compete in the free market,” Hammer said. “That’s how they want to make their money. They don’t want to be propped up by the government.”
Hammer also said he thinks Trump’s plan to place a 200% tariff on John Deere if the company moves part of its operations to Mexico is a “terrible” idea.
Energy
Hammer said he wants North Dakota to become a leader in renewable energy just like it has led on innovations for oil and gas production. He added comprehensive planning is needed for any energy transition.
During a debate on Prairie Public, Hammer highlighted his experience working on rigs in the Bakken oil fields and said he is “pro-American oil.”
He added the U.S. is producing more oil than ever before in the country’s history and said that should continue.
He said he thinks smaller, next generation nuclear technologies could provide a carbon-free solution to bridge any energy generating gaps in coming years. But, he acknowledged storing waste products would still be an issue.
Abortion
During a debate between the U.S. House candidates in August, Hammer voiced support for abortion access and said abortion bans are “government overreach” into personal decisions.
“These are very hard choices people make and I trust people to go in and make that choice that’s right for them,” he said. “And I trust medical professionals to advise them on what the pathways are, and what they believe is best.”
Fundraising
As of Sept. 30, Hammer has raised about $1 million in donations during the 2024 election, a significant sum for a Democrat in North Dakota. More than $440,000 in contributions were from the last three months. He said his campaign’s average donation, according to fundraising platform ActBlue, is $30 per donor.
“The message is resonating, and we’re just constantly working,” Hammer said.
Hammer said his campaign has focused on getting to events around the state to build morale among Democrats.
“It’s not just about me in this race. It’s really about building something to hand the baton to the next person,” Hammer said.
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