Fedorchak claims ‘election interference’ over false text messages

Julie Fedorchak, a candidate for North Dakota's at-large U.S. House seat, delivers remarks during a press conference after text messages surfaced, falsely claiming she withdrew from the race on June 11, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Julie Fedorchak, a Republican candidate for North Dakota’s at-large U.S. House seat, alleged election interference during a news conference Tuesday afternoon after multiple text messages surfaced saying she had dropped out of the race.

Fedorchak said the text messages were sent to thousands of North Dakotans and the campaign is in the process of filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, requesting an investigation into the incident.

“This is, at minimum, election fraud, and it’s a desperate tactic to influence and discourage voters,” Fedorchak said.

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She also said the campaign has no evidence any other campaign was behind the text messages, but the investigation should sort that out.

Campaign manager Sean Cleary pointed the finger at former lawmaker Rick Becker but acknowledged he did not have evidence to confirm that.

“It just really lines up with everything else we’ve been seeing from the Becker camp,” Cleary said.

On Tuesday morning, Becker’s campaign told the North Dakota Monitor the candidate had nothing to do with the messages. 

“This text certainly is misleading. It’s not from the Rick Becker campaign and Rick condemns any effort to try and mislead or misinform the voters,” the Becker campaign said in a statement.

The messages included a manipulated video made of clips of Fedorchak withdrawing her name from nomination from the NDGOP convention after two ballots failed to receive a majority of delegates.

“We expect a full investigation of this matter to get to the bottom of it,” Fedorchak said. “These kind of tactics just can’t be tolerated for this election or for any election.”

Fedorchak said she didn’t receive the text messages personally, but friends and family in the Fargo area received the messages and alerted the campaign.

Fedorchak called on her opponents to denounce these kinds of false campaign ads.

When asked whether she will contest the election results, if she were to lose, Fedorchak said: “We’ll see. We expect the results to go our way. I think North Dakotans are going to see through this and I expect a whole surge this evening to get out and vote, at least I hope they do. I hope that that’s the response that people have because this is absolutely not a North Dakota value.”

Becker, Fedorchak, Cara Mund, Alex Balazs and Sharlet Mohr are on the Republican ballot for U.S. House in Tuesday’s North Dakota primary election. 

The winner will compete against either Democrat Trygve Hammer, the party endorsed candidate, or Roland Riemers.

Balazs won the Republican endorsement at the state convention in April, but only after Becker had encouraged delegates to “spoil” ballots by voting for him on the first ballot. Becker was not eligible for the endorsement for violating party rules. Balazs had a narrow lead over Fedorchak in a second vote before Fedorchak withdrew. 

Polling has shown Becker and Fedorchak far ahead of the other three candidates going into today’s vote, but with many voters undecided. 

The North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party also condemned the misleading messages. On Monday, messages encouraged Democrats to vote for Becker 

“This blatant attempt to deceive North Dakotans is disgusting,” said Dem-NPL spokeswoman Laura Dronen. “We don’t know who sent these messages, but as we move to the general election we all must be vigilant. In our digital age rife with deep fakes and AI-generated images, disinformation and lies spread like wildfire.”  

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