Port: Balazs wins NDGOP convention endorsement, but Becker was the bigger loser

MINOT — When former lawmaker Rick Becker announced his candidacy for the United States House of Representatives, I think he imagined himself pitting his performative populism against the traditional conservatism of a conventional Republican candidate for the Republican nomination.

Someone like Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, who is also in the House race, or former state Sen. Tom Campbell, who ended his House campaign a few weeks ago.

I don't think Becker imagined himself taking on an ultra-MAGA candidate running on his right flank.

Alex Balazs is an unknown candidate, but he has some momentum behind his nascent campaign. His campaign materials are well done. Certainly not what you'd expect from an out-of-left-field candidate. He's hired political professionals to run his campaign. And he has some of North Dakota's MAGA movement behind his campaign.

State Sen. Judy Estenson, who is also the chair of District 9, gave one of Balazs' endorsing speeches. District 15 Chairman Jason Pierce — who told the crowd that to him MAGA stands for Make America Godly Again — gave another one.

Balazs' own speech may as well have been catnip for the MAGA crowd. He's well-spoken — engaging, funny, charming — and the only criticism is that he and his nominators were a bit long-winded. But he did get a standing ovation from about a quarter of the crowd and, in his defense, Fedorchak's presentation went long, too.

Earlier in the event, Becker was messaging his supporters among the delegates not to vote for Balazs. "We want to avoid Alex suddenly getting a lot of attention and media," he said in the message. "If that happens, there could be two candidates perceived as conservatives in the race who will split the ballot, and allow Julie to skate to a victory in June."

Balazs has Becker spooked, and for good reason.

After Balazs' speech, he came to the back of the convention hall, near where I was sitting, and met with Becker supporters to make the case that he's not playing a spoiler to Becker. I wasn't able to hear much of the conversation, but it broke up with handshakes and smiles.

"They are afraid I'm going to split the ticket," Balazs told me afterward.

Whatever the intent of Balazs' campaign, and I have no reason to doubt his sincerity, it's hard not to see this as redounding to the benefit of Fedorchak. Becker is well-known and has an enthusiastic base of supporters, but he's polarizing, and he's yet to demonstrate that he can win with the North Dakota electorate against a traditional Republican.

And he's not going to be able to demonstrate it if he's splitting his base of support with Balazs.

Balazs took note of Becker's encouragement to delegates to spoil their ballots — "Becker and party insiders are once again playing the grassroots as fools," Balazs' campaign told me of the gambit — and it resulted in some odd instructions from party leaders to the delegates, describing the difference between a spoiled ballot and an abstaining ballot.

I guess to make sure the delegates knew how to spoil their ballots appropriately?

The delegates got the message. On the first ballot, there were 382 ballots spoiled, with several of the district chairs indicating that those ballots were "spoiled for Rick Becker." Fedorchak got 611 votes, while Balazs got 403.

Since Balazs got more votes than Becker, it seems the latter candidate's concerns were confirmed. Regardless, there was no candidate with a majority, and a second ballot was required.

Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum

But before that happened, Becker was recognized to speak from the floor. Amid loud boos (and some cheers) he claimed that he told his supporters to spoil ballots because they had come to him feeling "disenfranchised" by the rule barring him from seeking the endorsement. "I would ask that people no longer cast spoiled ballots," he said.

I'm not sure many in the room believed his story, that he was merely informing his supporters rather than manufacturing complications to bring the spotlight to himself.

The convention parliamentarian, Al Gage, at that point asked delegates if they were willing to change the rules so that spoiled ballots don't count toward the vote total via unanimous consent. The loud responses were far from unanimous, as you might expect.

The second ballot also didn't produce a winner. There were far fewer spoiled ballots, per Becker's request, but Balazs and Fedorchak were deadlocked, 605 to 599, respectively.

After the vote, Fedorchak thanked Balazs, then withdrew from the race, though she made it clear she will continue her campaign to the June primary.

"It's hard for me to imagine someone seeking a leadership role who asks their supporters to spoil ballots," she told the crowd, receiving loud ovations and scattered boos. "Especially someone who broke the rules," she added.

"Out of respect for everyone here, I ask my supporters to support Alex," she said. After consulting with the convention officials, Fedorchak amended her statement, making it clear she was withdrawing from the competition.

The amendment allowed the convention officials to end the balloting, as there was only one candidate left. Balazs took the stage and immediately thanked Fedorchak for her leadership. He specifically didn't mention Becker.

It was a big victory for Balazs, but the real loser, I think, was not Fedorchak so much as Becker, who now has a serious rival for his base of support.