Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
U.S. House candidates Kelly Armstrong and Mac Schneider will square off May 5 in the first candidate debate of the 2018 campaign.
Republican-endorsed Armstrong and Dem-NPL-endorsed Schneider will debate at 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, May 5, at the Bismarck Radisson Hotel during the annual convention of the North Dakota Newspaper Association (NDNA).
The debate was scheduled primarily for the benefit of newspaper staffers from across the state, but it will be open to the public until available seating is filled.
“NDNA has a long history of hosting political debates as a way of informing our members and the voting public about candidates,” said Harvey Brock NDNA president and publisher of the Dickinson Press.
Brock will moderate the debate, and a panel of three newspaper journalists will ask questions of the candidates.
Armstrong won the Republican nomination on the first ballot at the state GOP convention in early April, defeating five other candidates.
Schneider emerged as the top of three candidates seeking the nomination in late March at the Dem-NPL state convention.
Armstrong is vice president of his family’s energy business in Dickinson. He obtained bachelor’s and law degrees from University of North Dakota, and practiced law in Grand Forks before returning to Dickinson. He has served in the North Dakota Senate since 2012. He and his wife, Kjersti, have two children, Anna, 11, and Eli, 8.
Schneider practices law in Fargo. He is a graduate of the University of North Dakota and Georgetown University Law Center, and served in the North Dakota Senate from 2008 to 2016, including a stint as Senate minority leader. He and his wife, Crystal, have two daughters, Merritt, 5 and Cameron, 1.
Debate panelists will be Steve Wagner, Director of Content for Forum Communications in Fargo; Cecile Wehrman, President of Journal Publishing of Crosby and Tioga; and Brayden Zenker, a student journalist at Legacy High School in Bismarck.
