492: 'If you just want to stir things up you're not doing your job'

Alex Balazs, the out-of-nowhere candidate who won the North Dakota Republican Party's convention endorsement last week, ended his interview on this episode of Plain Talk by joking about the tough questions we asked him.

We did run him through the ringer, on everything from abortion, to Trump's claims about the 2020 election and January 6, to the farm bill, Ukraine, and Social Security.

One question I thought was important to get him on the record about was how he'd handle the dysfunction that has roiled the Republican caucus in the United States House of Representatives. One of his opponents, former lawmaker Rick Becker, has promised to go to Washington D.C. and contribute to the chaos by being a "bull in a china shop."

"If you just want to stir things up you're not doing your job," Balazs told us of that approach.

Balazs says he was "very humbled" to receive the convention endorsement. He said he made his decision to run for Congress "at the kitchen table."

"I guess you could call me a Trump Republican, he said when asked about his support for the former president, "but I'm also the first one in the kitchen to say 'why did he have to say that?'"

Did Trump win the 2020 election? "We went through a process that elected Joe Biden," he said, though he also said there was some fraud in the voting, and that Democrats should acknowledge it. As for January 6? "There was no insurrection," he said.

"I'm never going to support anyone who broke a window or something," he added, but said he felt there have been many people put in jail for merely walking into the capitol that day. He added that what happened on January 6 was "less wrong than what happened after."

On abortion, Balazs says "the answer is no on a federal abortion ban" but that he's a "conception to death kind of person" who wants to put "more teeth in the law."

Balazs also said his campaign is mostly self-funded. He claims to have raised only $2,035 from contributors so far. 

So far in his campaign, he's leaned heavily on his resume in the military. When asked if he could offer documentation to substantiate that record, he said he doesn't want personal information made public --"they're very sensitive documents," he said -- but would be willing to make arrangements to have them reviewed.

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