Trygve Hammer
October 6, 2026 · Newsletter
Back in Black
I owe you an apology, especially if you are a paid subscriber. I have not been nearly as prolific as I should have been over the past few months or handful of months or half a dozen months. Time sometimes warps on the campaign trail. This time around I’ve had a couple instances of momentarily forgetting what town I’m in and many instances of questioning what day of the week it is.
When things get busy, I tend to give up the things I enjoy, the activities that make me who I am. I’m not me when I’m not writing. I’m not my best self when I’m not running or going to the gym. I will try to remember that in the morning. (I am not traveling tomorrow, which I believe will be a Wednesday.)
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Come to think of it, I will have to go out and erect some barn signs tomorrow, but that will be a two-hour round trip, not counting the time required to put up the signs. No one will hand me a microphone.
My wife says that I need to adopt the Nike approach to writing these newsletters and “Just do it.” It doesn’t have to be perfect, she says. It doesn’t have to be funny. I don’t have to mention her or her cats, though I probably will. I think her cats are less forgiving. They expect purrrrfection but always look at me like I am the last person on Earth capable of achieving it. I am a dad. I am allowed to make the purrrrfection joke.
Campaigning is a learning experience, and you never learn anything from the people you discount or ignore. That’s what I dislike about polls: they can’t tell you what really matters to the person in front of you, and I have had a lot of people in front of me. I’ve found that you can always find some point of agreement, even with a Green Bay Packers fan. On points where we can’t find agreement, I politely hold my ground, even if it means losing a vote. It turns out that respectfully disagreeing can be a way to earn someone’s vote. Especially here in North Dakota where people tend to have an independent streak. There are folks who won’t talk to me because I don’t have an (R) behind my name. They are unpersuadable, and they always vote. I think they will be outnumbered this year.
I am persuadable. I’m just smart enough to realize I might be wrong. People I met on the campaign trail have changed my thinking by degrees, though usually less than 180 degrees.
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I have a debate in a couple of days. The incumbent won’t be there. We all agreed to her campaign’s stipulations. The debate was locked on, but then she backed out and her campaign tried to blame Prairie Public Television. I was glad when Prairie Public stood up for themselves and set the record straight. They could have bent over backward the way public media often has for the people who accuse them of bias.
On the same debate stage two years ago, I warned that we needed to be careful about how we let data centers into the state. I said that Congress had ceded too much power to the Executive and that we needed people in Congress who would remember that their oath was to the Constitution, not to a person or a political party. Those were not poll-tested statements; they were based on observation and thought.
Thoughtfulness matters. A Marine brigadier general once told me that the first thing you should do in an aircraft emergency is wind your clock. Take a moment to think so you don’t make an input that makes things worse.
Almost everyone I talk to thinks things are worse than they were two years ago. There have been many thoughtless inputs. Congress has not only failed to tell the Trump administration to wind their clock, but they have let them declare fake emergencies and award no-bid contracts. They have let the Executive Branch take control of the purse strings and be the sole arbiter of trade and of appropriate use of military force. Maybe more people in Congress need children or grandchildren subject to going into harm’s way. (All three of my kids are in active duty families.)
Maybe more of them need children or grandchildren with darker skin. That statement could lose me some votes. I don’t care.
I do care that the next two years are better than the last two. I care about how this country looks when you turn around the map and look at it from the outside. I care about the people who are struggling to make ends meet and who have probably always lived with financial stress. I care about the young folks who are counting on us to do a better job and to build a society and economy that makes them feel safe starting or expanding a family.
I think it is essential to rebuild trust in our institutions and to show Americans that Congress can get things done. That’s why I’m running. That’s why I am asking North Dakotans for their vote. We are better than this, and it’s time to start proving it.