On the political maps of today that show the nation’s urban/rural divide, North Dakota shows up solidly red. And after the drubbing Democrats took here in November, Republicans now hold all major offices in the state, and now exclusively make up North Dakota’s congressional delegation in D.C. But it wasn’t always that way.
In this excerpt, hear from former Democratic North Dakota agriculture commissioner, Sarah Vogel, who scored a huge legal victory that saved many farmers from financial ruin. She tells her friend, Karen Ehrens, that she worries that some of the dangerous trends that existed during the farming crisis of the 1980s are repeating themselves today. They discussed this, and more, in their visit to the StoryCorps MobileBooth in Bismarck.
StoryCorps is a national initiative to record and collect stories of everyday people. Excerpts were selected and produced by Prairie Public. Thanks Basin Electric Power Cooperative of Bismarck for helping sponsor the StoryCorps visit to North Dakota. Ashley Thornberg edited this excerpt.