488: 'I'm in a campaign. I'm always nervous.'

Plain Talk

"The reality is we knew the campaign team," U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong told me and my co-host Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk.

Armstrong was responding to a question about his decision to go negative first against his opponent, Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller, in North Dakota's Republican gubernatorial primary.

"We are going to play the game by the rules as they are not as we wish them to be," he said, adding that the political team running Miller's campaign "has never not gone scorched earth."

Asked if going negative so early is a sign that he's nervous about losing this election, Armstrong admitted that he is. "I'm in a campaign," he said. "I'm always nervous."

The attack ad branded Miller as "Tall Tale Tammy." Asked about why he chose that approach, Armstrong said it's because he has a strong dislike of politicians who present themselves other than as they are. "The one thing I hate in politics, I just despise it, is inauthenticity," he said.

I've reported on messaging polling that the Miller campaign has done, testing potential attacks on Armstrong. Some of the questions in that polling dealt with Armstrong's past work as a criminal defense attorney, pointing out that he represented clients accused of some heinous crimes, like spousal abuse and child abuse.

But Armstrong said he was proud of his work. "I've been fighting for people's civil liberties, sometimes even in really unpopular venues," he said, pointing out that all Americans have a right to legal counsel in a criminal proceeding.

"If they think I'm going to back away from my record as a criminal defense attorney, they're mistaken," he added.

Also on this episode, Oban and I discuss my recent reporting about New Song Church in Bismarck, a religious institution with deep political connections that has seemingly embraced partisan politics and Christian nationalism.

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