Port : A candidate characteristic that matters more than party or ideology

grandforksherald.com · Feb 21, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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MINOT — We're in a new election season, meaning you and I will have decisions to make at the ballot box soon.A regiment of candidates will be asking for our votes, and it's our duty to discern which candidates will do the best job governing us. A lot of what goes into that decision will have to do with things like ideology and partisan affiliation, but I'd ask you to consider another factor before all else: Does the candidate want to be elected to represent you or themselves? Those are important questions for legislative candidates. Let me give you some examples of what I'm talking about.Consider Rep. Jeff Hoverson and Rep. Lori VanWinkle of District 3 in Minot. These two are emblematic of the sort of candidate running to represent their hobby horse issues and not their communities. Neither has done all that much to facilitate meaningful policy, but they have made plenty of headlines for the wrong reasons.Hoverson has been obsessed with mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in North Dakota schools. Both candidates have made headlines for ugly and divisive comments. Those actions draw the sort of attention, and even infamy, politicians like these crave, but what have they done for their voters? Former lawmaker Rick Becker, who is attempting a return to the legislature in Bismarck's District 7 after multiple unsuccessful stints on the statewide ballot, is in this same category. His track record of legislative accomplishments is anemic, but he has managed to build a relatively large social media following. Becker isn't quite so enamored with using the power of government to cram religion down the throats of the masses — Becker's feints toward religious conviction are typically timed to benefit his statewide campaigns — but he loves being Facebook famous.After losing big in the 2024 U.S. House race, Becker said he was done with politics, but here he is running again, because, I believe, he can't live without the attention. Which is what you'd expect from someone who seeks elected office to serve themselves and not the public.In Fargo, city commissioner Dave Piepkorn is running for mayor. He's been in local government for a seeming eternity, frequently turning public meetings into circuses with his caustic remarks. Piepkorn likes to posture as a conservative, but if he has any definable ideology, it's doing whatever he can to keep Dave Piepkorn's name in the headlines. Former commissioner Tony Gehrig, who is running for another stint in Fargo's city government, is much the same.I could keep naming names, but I think you get my point, and you could probably name some examples of your own. When we talk about politicians serving themselves, what frequently comes to mind is self-dealing. Elected officials lining their pockets, or the pockets of friends and family, at the expense of the taxpayers. But there's another, far more common type of self-interest in politics, and it involves candidates who are on the ballot for no other reason than because it's a type of fame, or it gives them an opportunity to pursue some personal obsession. Those are the wrong candidates to vote for, whatever their party affiliation or claimed ideology. Rob Port is a news reporter, columnist, and podcast host for the Forum News Service with an extensive background in investigations and public records. He covers politics and government in North Dakota and the upper Midwest. Reach him at rport@forumcomm.com. Click here to subscribe to his Plain Talk podcast.