Brickner: Katrina Christiansen: Rooted in the soil of America
Joan Brickner shares what she learned recently about U.S. Senate Candidate Katrina Christiansen. She spoke with Christiansen the day Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Published by The Forum | August 31, 2024
Columnist Joan Brickner
Like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic candidate for vice president, Katrina Christiansen, the Democratic candidate to represent North Dakota in the U.S. Senate, hails from Nebraska. “Flyover country,” like North Dakota itself.
We spoke on the day Walz was selected as vice presidential candidate. Christiansen said, “I think it’s a really great choice.” She knows him, and also offers praise for Vice President Kamala Harris, with her extensive background as attorney general of California, the largest state and 10thlargest economy in the world.”
But I wanted to focus on Christiansen.
Her campaign slogan is “Bold, courageous, independent.”
“I really do think that it’s bold to have independent [thought} – critical thinking, supporting your ideas and supporting how you communicate.
“Just to give you an example, I’ve signed on to a term limit agreement. That’s a bold choice.
“I don’t toe a party line. I identify as a Democrat because Democratic policies help make me the person I am: food stamps, Head Start, free and reduced lunch, public education, Pell Grants. That doesn’t mean there aren’t market-based solutions that we shouldn’t be embracing.”
Her own family received some of these benefits, in the poverty of their family farm. These advantages helped her reach American ambitions: she was valedictorian of her class in Pender, Nebraska. She eventually earned a doctorate in agricultural engineering, along with three patents.
She finds ways to connect, even using sports to help her students understand physics.
I wondered what she learned from her first Senate run.
“I got in too late. I didn’t have any staff. Navigating politics is challenging, and it’s good to have people who know what they’re doing and have connections to help build out that infrastructure to run a campaign.”
Initially uncomfortable sharing her family background, she learned the importance of story. “Telling your story is how you connect to people. And it helps voters understand you. People can relate.”
For instance, she was laid off and her husband was furloughed. They needed a new roof and had to pull money out of savings.
She said, “I met this woman when I was up in Pembina County and she said that she was going to vote for me, even though she is a Republican, and even though we don’t agree on everything. She said my opponent hasn’t done anything.”
“We do not have a strong antitrust operation. Consumers and farmers suffer from it. This is not a market- based economy.” She mentions the power of companies like Bunge, ADM, Cargill, and Dreyfus. “There are only four large processors that buy all of the cereals. They can control the market, and that’s bad for the producers, and it’s bad for the consumers.” Her experience working for Cargill showed profit and power were their priorities.
She said, “When you look at the meat packing piece, we have the same thing. We have four large packers. One of them is American–owned, the other three aren’t. Essentially the packers can control the price of cattle.”
Oil, too. “Biden doesn’t have control over the price of oil. The United States is producing more oil than it ever has in history and OPEC likes to control the price of oil. And so, of course, the oil companies have all had incredible profits.
Besides agricultural issues, Christiansen seeks to solve problems over opioids and the southern border.
For Christiansen, connection and intelligence are key in solving problems for North Dakotans.
— Opinion by Joan Brickner