Jul. 1—GRAND FORKS — U.S. House candidates Trygve Hammer and Julie Fedorchak said the first presidential debate of 2024 failed to address key issues.

Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump

debated last Thursday night in a CNN-moderated debate in Atlanta.

In the debate, Biden and Trump sparred over their records on the economy and recovery after the pandemic, abortion, Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. After the fact, many have pointed out both candidates’ ages — Trump is 78 and Biden is 81 — and that no matter which candidate is elected, he would be the oldest president the country has ever had.

“As one commentator said after Thursday’s debate, Donald Trump seemed 30 years, not three years, younger than Joe Biden,” Fedorchak,

the Republican nominee for North Dakota’s House seat,

said in a statement. “Biden’s weak leadership is damaging our country, hurting our citizens and creating insecurity in our world.”

Fedorchak continued by saying the country needs “a president who will secure the border, revive our economy and restore strong American leadership. That president is Donald Trump.”

Hammer,

the Democratic nominee,

said the debate failed to address key rural issues.

“We need Congress to act decisively to protect our family farms and ranches from corporate consolidation and unfair trade practices that are decimating our rural communities,” Hammer said in a statement. “Our agriculture industry is not operating in a free market; it’s controlled by a cartel of foreign adversaries and multinational corporations with no interest in providing products and services to the American people at a fair price.”

Hammer added that Congress needs to address transparency and fairness in the American agricultural sector in the next iteration of the farm bill.

The farm bill is a series of laws Congress enacts every five to six years that set out policy in food and agriculture across the country. In the statement, Hammer said more needs to be done to protect small farmers from corporate consolidation and the protection of American-made agricultural products. Both Fedorchak and Hammer have said that updating the farm bill and focusing on local farmers and ranchers is key if elected to the House.