Anti-abortion Democrat attempts to flip North Dakota’s only Property seat

Kate Scanlon

August 21, 06:30 AM August 21, 06:30 AM

As Democrats nationally marketing campaign on abortion obtain next the Supreme Court's June ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, a pink-condition Democrat is bucking the trend.

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Democrat Mark Haugen, who is challenging Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) for North Dakota’s at-big congressional district, is managing a campaign targeted on vital difficulties for the state: the 2023 farm monthly bill and improving upon access to healthcare for rural inhabitants. But it is his placement on abortion that is drawing consideration, as it sets him apart from most other candidates in his get together this cycle.

“I never ever hid my professional-life beliefs,” Haugen told the Washington Examiner in an interview this 7 days. “Everybody knew I'm pro-existence. I'm Catholic, and I'm very active in the Catholic community listed here in Bismarck.”

“Although we are a minority,” Haugen said, “we are a voice out there.”

Haugen understands his odds are steep: Armstrong carried 69% of the state’s vote in 2020, and the seat is noticed as a protected 1 for Republicans by nonpartisan election analysts.

“It's tricky and a deep-purple state for Democrats,” he claimed, including, “We're doing work as challenging as we can. Democrats, we constantly know we have to outwork our opponent.”

Haugen reported he is creating the ideal situation he can to voters as he travels the state, joking he has been to “the Crystal Springs rest stop 10 periods,” a spot close to the centre of North Dakota.

An unbiased campaign by Cara Mund, a Bismarck native and former Pass up The united states functioning as a pro-abortion rights prospect, could also shake up the race. But Haugen did not seem involved she would lower into his assist.

“She's going to acquire absent from both get-togethers,” Haugen stated. “So I guess it truly is anybody's guess how considerably of that pie she's likely to slice up.”

Dozens of anti-abortion Residence Democrats, numerous of them Catholic, were being in office as just lately as 2010, but these lawmakers have considering that shed reelection or preferred not to operate. A single such former member, Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), notably missing a primary obstacle from a pro-abortion legal rights applicant in 2020 by a slim margin.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who holds anti-abortion sights, narrowly defeated a professional-abortion rights major challenger before this 12 months and is viewed as the previous anti-abortion Democrat in the Dwelling.

If Haugen have been to be elected to Congress, the ranks of anti-abortion Democrats in the chamber would basically double.

Questioned how he would navigate becoming a little something of a figurehead for anti-abortion Democrats and how he may well bridge that divide inside of his bash, Haugen likened it to the dissimilarities amongst centrists and progressives a lot more broadly and reported the occasion needs average, “blue dog Democrats.”

“We can just take that centrist information and attain throughout the aisle to the Republicans,” he said. “I consider that is in all probability the route I would acquire.”

Haugen claimed the functions of Jan. 6 really should be proof that “for our democracy to operate and do the job for society and all citizens,” legislators have to have to work together and compromise with a single a different throughout occasion strains.

“Compromise indicates you might be not going to get every thing you want,” he claimed. “You're heading to have to give a small, acquire a tiny. There is certainly just also significantly of both of those sides of the get-togethers that are entrenching themselves to the right, to the still left. And I hope we can just acquire that center coalition.”

Compromise was a vital variable in Haugen's pitch to his very own occasion about staying in a position to signify it on the ballot. Some users of the North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party, the state’s affiliate of the Democratic Get together and the final result of a historic merger between events in the Progressive Era, objected to supporting him as their prospect thanks to his sights on abortion. But a resolution to rethink guidance of Haugen unsuccessful very last month, as the bash made a decision to continue its support of his candidacy despite variations in views on abortion.

Haugen reported the conclusion to keep on supporting his candidacy displays the occasion recognized that he is “pro-existence, but it must not be a litmus check in the Democratic NPL, and I agree with that.”

Whichever the end result, Haugen stated, he is savoring the prospect to operate for Congress.

“It's a privilege to be capable to characterize your occasion, signify the people in North Dakota, and have interaction in a political debate, and that's what I cherish, that's what I do with gratitude regardless of whether I get or shed,” he mentioned.