624: 'We need more human-to-human, face-to-face interaction'

Minot-area Democrat Trygve Hammer has run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the last two election cycles.

More recently, he's organizing a town hall event in Minot — which he's branded the People's Town Hall — as a clapback to Rep. Julie Fedorchak holding only digital town halls. He was on this episode of Plain Talk to promote that event, but I started him off with the obvious question.

Will he seek a seat in Congress for the third consecutive election cycle?

"My wife said to make very clear that this does not mean I'm running," Hammer said. "I haven't closed it off, but you know, that's definitely, I'm nowhere near making a decision at this time."

So not a yes, but not a no either.

Fedorchak has justified her decision not to hold in-person town halls by pointing to acts of political violence, such as the murder of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband earlier this year, and public events in other states that have been unproductive because of disruptions by political activists. Hammer said he's holding his event to prove "it's safe to go out there and have these town halls."

Hammer also said that voters want to see Democrats "fight back" against Republicans. When I pointed out that Democrats have done almost nothing but attack Donald Trump since he was first elected in 2016 — remember they impeached him, twice, in his first term — and that it hasn't worked out well for them, he said Democrats "haven't gotten out there and and really laid down the law, really, really pushed back against Republican accusations."

Hammer's town hall will be held at the Carnegie Center in downtown Minot on July 31 at 7:00 pm.

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