Republican Julie Fedorchak, a longtime public utilities regulator in North Dakota, ran in a heated GOP primary on Jun. 11… and a rival appeared to be playing dirty.
On Election Day, some text messages reportedly told voters that Fedorchak had suspended her campaign that day.
Fedorchak ultimately won the primary. However, she still wants accountability, and she’s not just sending tweets to complain about so-called “Deep State operatives” plotting against her.
She’s taking legal action.
Fedorchak’s lawyer, Shane Goettle, has filed formal complaints with the Feds.
Goettle said he informed the authorities, including the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office about these messages. He alleged that the sender had defrauded the voters and interfered with the election.
The lawyer said the texts had twisted news headlines and part of an interview.
Although Fedorchak withdrew from a party endorsement process in April, she stayed in the five-person race.
Goettle counted thousands of these texts sent to North Dakotans, and warned about the possibility of similar scandals in other states this fall.
“I think whoever is behind this is probably testing it out in a primary election and could well use this as a tool to disrupt elections around the country if they succeed,” Goettle said.
The lawyer added that Fedorchak’s campaign couldn’t identify the sender but had been documenting the phone numbers, all with North Dakota’s 701 area code.
The other Republican candidates in the race have denied any involvement.
The state’s Democratic-NPL Party denounced the messages. The Democrats also denied involvement in any messages urging their base to request a Republican ballot and vote for Rick Becker, one of the four Republicans running against Fedorchak.
Fedorchak, a Public Service Commission member, is running for North Dakota’s only seat in the U.S. House.
Incumbent Rep. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican, declined to run for re-election. He’s running for governor instead.
Despite the reported texts, Fedorchak won the primary with 46 percent of the vote. She’ll face Democrat Trygve Hammer this November.