Mund highlights moderate positions in crowded NDGOP House primary

One Republican candidate for North Dakota’s at-large U.S. House seat sees herself as the only moderate in the race and believes the other candidates are letting voters down by racing to the party’s conservative fringe.

Cara Mund, an attorney and former Miss America, is advocating for abortion rights as a key part of her platform but said she has always identified with the Republican Party. Mund, a graduate of Harvard Law School, interned in Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven’s Washington, D.C., office in 2016. 

“Just because you are pro-choice and pro-democracy does not mean that you are not a Republican,” she said. 

Balazs highlights policies in US House race

Mund is running in the June 11 primary against Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, former state Rep. Rick Becker, NDGOP-endorsed candidate Alex Balazs and Williston woman Sharlet Mohr, who, like Mund, entered the race near the filing deadline.

In an interview with the North Dakota Monitor, Mund said the other four candidates in the Republican race are far to the right of many of her policy positions.

Being a Republican

Mund ran as an independent candidate for the U.S. House in 2022, entering the race in September of that year. She said she didn’t feel her values were represented by Republican-endorsed Rep. Kelly Armstrong or Democratic-NPL candidate Mark Haugen, who both oppose abortion.

Haugen suspended his campaign two months before the 2022 general election. Mund earned 38% of the vote and lost to Armstrong, who is now running for North Dakota governor.

During that campaign, Mund said she would caucus with Republicans.

“A lot of people just pigeon-holed me because I was a pro-choice candidate, as ‘she has to be a Democrat,’ but that’s not the case,” Mund said.

Since the campaign, Mund said she has worked remotely from Bismarck for a New York law firm.

Abortion

Mund said her policy stance on abortion has caused her to receive threatening messages.

One message, Mund read from her phone, said, “This is why I pray and ask God to close your womb so that you’ll never be able to get pregnant and have children, unless you repent.”

She said she’s received threats ever since she won the 2018 Miss America pageant, but she has noticed an uptick since she announced her candidacy on April 8.

“I know this is a hotly contested issue and it’s something I will defend,” she said. “It’s women’s rights.”

Fedorchak voices support for federal abortion ban as she campaigns for US House

She said it’s concerning that the Supreme Court is becoming politicized and she worries the overturning of precedential rulings could lead to other decisions considered settled law being brought back into question, like same-sex or interracial marriage.

“If we are a party of limited government, how come we’re OK being in a woman’s doctor’s appointment or in her bedroom?” Mund said.

In terms of a national abortion ban, she said she finds it fascinating that her Republican opponents always point to states’ rights on the issue of abortion, but would then go along with favoring a federal ban on abortion.

“As a 30-year-old woman who is hoping to have kids relatively soon, I am genuinely terrified of going through the process of having kids in the state of North Dakota,” she said. “I come from a family where it’s been difficult for women in my family and that means I potentially have to use IVF (in vitro fertilization) … and for women that go through a miscarriage, the medical term is a spontaneous abortion … it is such a traumatizing event for a woman.”

She also worries about health professionals leaving North Dakota because of the state’s strict abortion law over the fear they could face charges or retribution for performing their job.

She said she’d vote in favor of codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections into federal law.

Energy and ag

Mund said she wants the United States to be energy independent and doesn’t believe increased regulations will lead to that outcome.

She also staunchly opposes using eminent domain for utility projects like the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline being planned across the upper Midwest.

“I don’t think private companies should be able to come in and take land,” Mund said.

She added she doesn’t think there has been enough research done on carbon capture technology to make it a viable option in the energy industry.

Becker says he’s not afraid to ‘rattle cages’ as he seeks US House seat

Mund also said one of the best things the federal government can do for North Dakota is to pass a Farm Bill. The previous federal Farm Bill was passed in 2018 and its benefits are set to expire in September, unless they are extended by Congress.

When Mund was campaigning in 2022, the Farm Bill was top of mind for many North Dakota voters, she said. 

“Here we are, two years later, and there is still no Farm Bill,” she said. 

She added that she has farmers in her family and she knows growing crops is a risky job that is dependent on weather. She said she’d continue getting advice from North Dakota farmers and ranchers, the Farm Bureau and other ag industry professionals.

Immigration

Mund said the southern border is in a state of crisis with migrants entering the country at increasing rates. She said congressional Republicans had an opportunity to help the situation through a bipartisan border security and foreign aid package negotiated by conservative Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., but failed to pass the measure after it was opposed by former President Donald Trump.

“The fact that they were able to get a bipartisan bill under a Democrat president is huge,” she said. “They had an opportunity and they didn’t take it.”

Mund also believes the path to citizenship should be more accessible and policymakers should emphasize legal immigration to help combat workforce shortages around the country. 

Foreign aid

Mund said she fully supports assisting Ukraine in the war effort against Russia.

“We either have to fight it there, or fight it here,” she said. Adding, she applauded House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., for agreeing to bring foreign aid bills to the floor for a vote when it could cost him his job as speake.

“We can’t sit and wait on this,” Mund said. “You want to keep your allies close. If this was us, we would hope that our allies would step up for us.”

Experience

While Mund has not held elected office before, she said people shouldn’t underestimate the amount of work that goes into being Miss America for a year. 

“I was the face of a nonprofit organization,” she said. “I got to do things at 23 years old that many people don’t get to do in a lifetime.”

Every public appearance during that year, she said, reflected on the nonprofit organization and the state of North Dakota, which will be similar if she is elected to Congress.

“I’ve been in a national position, none of the other candidates have been in that,” she said.

3 Republican US House candidates hold fiery first debate

When asked if she supports former President Trump, she said: “I will work with him, but I will not worship him and that makes me the only candidate in this race on the Republican side that is going to do that.”

She attended a State of the Union address to Congress by President Trump as a guest of Sen. Hoeven. She added she has had dinner with Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his wife, Elaine Chao, a previous Secretary of Labor and Secretary of Transportation under two different Republican administrations.

She added she’s heard from multiple people within the Republican party that she needs to “wait her turn,” something she wholeheartedly disagrees with.

“With the issue right now of women’s reproductive health, if I wait my turn, I will not be of child bearing age anymore,” she said. “I have to step up now and what I want to accomplish, I can’t accomplish at the state level.”

She also pointed out that she is the only lawyer in the race and to be a representative is to be an advocate, which is something she’s been doing every day.

“You have to learn, you have to push, you need to be able to read legislation and understand legislation,” Mund said. “I’ve been training for this.”