Podcast: “The Only Thing Grindr Is Good for Is Making Sausages and Hamburgers”

Republican state Representative Randy Boehning was last on the ballot in 2014.

In 2015, contemporaneous to a contentious vote on gay rights legislation, Boehning admitted to sending a man unsolicited and explicit pictures of himself on Grindr. That’s an app which bills itself as “the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people.”

[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]I also asked Boehning if there were any other incidents where he sent those sort of images of himself to people who hadn’t asked for them. The lawmaker, agitated, again refused to answer.[/mks_pullquote]

Boehning announced yesterday that he’s running for re-election to the state House. The convention for District 27, which he has served since 2002, is tonight in Fargo. Today Boehning was on to talk about his re-election campaign.

Given that he hasn’t been on the ballot since the 2015 scandal, and in the context of the #MeToo controversies sweeping the nation, I asked Boehning about the Grindr episode.

He didn’t want to talk about it beyond saying that “the only thing Grindr is good for is making sausages and hamburgers.”

I also asked Boehning repeatedly if there were any other incidents where he sent those sort of images of himself to people who hadn’t asked for them. The lawmaker, agitated, again refused to answer.

He did respond to criticism from one of the Republicans challenging him for the nomination. Kristin Roers was on the show back in January and criticized Boehning for being something less than attentive to his district. “I would say he could do a better job of reaching out to his constituents,” she told me.

I asked Boehning about that criticism. He said his work in the construction industry requires him to travel a lot, but that constituents can still reach him via telephone and email.

Boehning told me that if he doesn’t win at his party’s district convention tonight, he may run to the June primary ballot or wait until the general election to run as an independent. State law would prohibit him from doing both. Candidates who lose on the June ballot cannot appear on the November ballot.

Will Gardner, candidate for the NDGOP nomination for Secretary of State, was also on to talk about his campaign.

The full audio is below. If you’d like the audio of each day’s show delivered to your devices automatically, subscribe to the podcast.

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