A transphobic Republican hired Dylan Mulvaney to mock his opponent. It severely backfired.

Rick Clark Becker, a failed candidate for North Dakota’s governorship and U.S. Senate seat, has lowered his sights for a state House seat this year instead. Towards this effort, Becker enlisted transgender social media phenom Dylan Mulvaney to help humiliate his opponent— but he did so without Mulvaney’s knowledge.

Becker commissioned Mulvaney to record a Cameo message for his Republican primary opponent for the state’s single U.S. House seat. He paid Mulvaney to make a video praising North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, without explaining the true circumstances behind the video.

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Fedorchak, no friend to trans people herself and a Trump-loving, pro-coal, rabid opponent of green energy (as well as an anti-abortion forced birther) — got a message from Mulvaney that misrepresented her far-right bona fides and which Becker apparently found hilarious.

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“From what I understand,” Mulvaney says sweetly in the Cameo video, “you just spent 10 years or more in North Dakota… promoting green energy and reducing harmful coal plants… but now, you are going to the D.C. Zoo… (to work with) rhinos…”

Getting this video made was pretty dang fun.

Dylan Mulvaney, though I doubt he knows who Julie Fedorchak is, did an excellent job highlighting her work against coal plants in North Dakota and her desire to work with RINO’s in DC. Well worth the Cameo fee for the laugh and to… pic.twitter.com/PfoySlfQlG

— Dr. Rick Becker (@DrRickBecker) May 21, 2024

Mulvaney was oblivious that everything she was saying was an insincere prank by Becker to paint Fedorchak as less than MAGA-pure and a tool of RINOs (Republicans In Name Only).

Becker loved the video.

“Getting this video made was pretty dang fun,” Becker posting it to X before misgendering the social media influencer.

“Dylan Mulvaney, though I doubt he knows who Julie Fedorchak is, did an excellent job highlighting her work against coal plants in North Dakota and her desire to work with RINO’s in DC. Well worth the Cameo fee for the laugh and to get our message out,” Becker added.

A week later, by Becker’s own admission, few North Dakotans agreed.

“The radical trans extremists are calling me their #1 threat, and I take that as a badge of honor,” he wrote. “It’s a shame we have journalists here in North Dakota willing to carry the torch for their extremist agenda. There is nothing normal or okay with men in girls bathrooms.”

Others didn’t find Becker’s stunt so funny.

Barry Nelson of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition said, “The entire stunt reeked of the type of juvenile online bullying that has no place in a middle school, much less as a publicity stunt by someone seeking election to a national office.”

The North Dakota State Director at Gender Justice Christina Sambor said, “It’s appalling that Rick Becker thinks that senseless online bullying and dehumanization of trans people is a path to victory. Hate is not a North Dakotan value. What Becker did only shows how out of sync he is with the vast majority of North Dakotans.”

Amy Jacobson, Executive Director of Prairie Action North Dakota, called Becker’s treatment of Mulvaney “deeply disappointing” and “profoundly damaging.”

Even the coal industry is keeping Becker at arm’s length, expressing support for his opponent.

Jason Bohrer, chair of a prominent coal PAC in the state, said in an interview after Becker’s stunt last week that they had a file of legislators they would approach for research and development projects, but Becker “wasn’t in it.”

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