418: Long-time Republican strategist weighs in on changes to the NDGOP

Minot, N.D. — "The history of this in other states hasn't been good," Pat Finken said on this episode of Plain Talk.

Finken is a long-time Republican strategist who has consulted and managed campaigns for candidates like Sen. John Hoeven, and Sen. Kevin Cramer and worked before for and against ballot measures. He joined this episode to discuss the recent takeover of the North Dakota Republican Party by populists, or culture warriors, or the MAGA movement, depending on your preferred nomenclature.

He argues that similar takeovers of Republican politics in places like Arizona, and Minnesota, have resulted in the states moving farther left. The same could happen in North Dakota, depending on how the new party leaders conduct themselves.

If they start to censure sitting Republican incumbents, if they recruit extreme candidates for the ballot, we could start to see Republicans lose ground in elections.

Also on this episode, co-host Ben Hanson and I discuss the recent controversy at North Dakota Right To Life, and a voting analysis of the North Dakota legislature from a Minnesota-based group that is premised on the idea that a Republican ever, under any circumstance, voting with a Democrat is a bad thing.

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