"Republicans understandably and rightly believe that border security is important for our national security," U.S. Senate candidate Katrina Christiansen told me and co-host Chad Oban on this episode of Plain Talk. Wanting a secure border is "absolutely paramount if you're going to be a real leader," she added.

I want to stress, at this juncture, that Christiansen is a Democrat. She's challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer. You don't normally hear Democrats talk about the border this way -- acknowledging that it's a crisis, calling for a crackdown on illegal crossings -- but Christiansen is going there.

She says she's "frustrated" by President Joe Biden who, she argues, "had an opportunity in the first two years" to address the border but didn't.

Christiansen understands that she's a Democrat challenging a Republican incumbent in a Republican leaning state, but, pointing to Republicans tanking a get-tough border bill seemingly at the behest of former President Donald Trump and his short-term political interests, she says "our current leadership isn't working."

"Kevin Cramer is very good at identifying problems -- and I mean this sincerely -- and he's good at assigning blame," Christiansen said. But where he's lacking is taking the next step, and getting to solutions.

Christiansen also talked about what she learned from her losing campaign for the U.S. Senate from last cycle, where she got nearly 25% of the vote in a three-way race against incumbent Sen. John Hoeven. 

Also on this episode, Oban and I talk about President Joe Biden's age issues, which are making headlines thanks to a special counsel's report on his handling of classified information, as well as some of the weirdness around U.S. House candidate Rick Becker's campaign, whether another Republican is going to join that race, and whether Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller will eventually announce a run for governor against Rep. Kelly Armstrong, who is already in that race.

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