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Jon Jay Jensen
2017 - Present
2030
8
Jon Jay Jensen is a judge of the North Dakota Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2017. His current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Jensen ran for re-election for judge of the North Dakota Supreme Court. He won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Jensen was elected by his peers to succeed Gerald VandeWalle as chief justice of the court in December 2019 and was re-elected to a five-year term as chief justice in December 2020.[1]
Jensen was appointed to the North Dakota Supreme Court by Governor Doug Burgum (R) in August of 2017.[2] To read more about judicial selection in North Dakota, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Jensen received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Jensen received an undergraduate degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato. He earned his J.D. with distinction at the University of North Dakota School of Law.[5] He was an attorney in private practice from 1991 to 2013, and a judge in the North Dakota Northeast Central Judicial District from 2013 to 2017.
Elections
2020
See also: North Dakota Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for North Dakota Supreme Court
Incumbent Jon Jay Jensen won election in the general election for North Dakota Supreme Court on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jon Jay Jensen (Nonpartisan) | 99.1 | 290,346 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.9 | 2,703 | ||
| Total votes: 293,049 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for North Dakota Supreme Court
Incumbent Jon Jay Jensen advanced from the primary for North Dakota Supreme Court on June 9, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jon Jay Jensen (Nonpartisan) | 99.6 | 128,347 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 570 | ||
| Total votes: 128,917 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jon Jay Jensen did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2016
There were 23 North Dakota District Court seats up for election in 2016, all of the seats appeared on the June 14, 2016, primary ballot. There were four contested races that appeared on the ballot for the general election on November 8, 2016. Two of the contested races had open seats where the sitting judge did not seek re-election.
General election
Incumbent Jon Jay Jensen ran unopposed in the Northeast Central Judicial District Judge No. 3 general election.
| North Dakota Northeast Central Judicial District, Judge No. 3, General Election, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Jon Jay Jensen Incumbent (unopposed) |
99.00% | 22,950 |
| Write-in votes | 1% | 232 |
| Total Votes | 23,182 | |
| Source: North Dakota Voting Information & Central Election Systems, "Unofficial Results General Election - November 8, 2016," accessed November 8, 2016 | ||
Primary election
Incumbent Jon Jay Jensen ran unopposed in the Northeast Central Judicial District Judge No. 3 primary election.
| North Dakota Northeast Central Judicial District, Judge No. 3, Primary Election, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Jon Jay Jensen Incumbent (unopposed) |
99.71% | 10,102 |
| Write-in votes | 0.29% | 29 |
| Total Votes | 10,131 | |
| Source: North Dakota Voting Information & Central Election Systems, "Unofficial Results Primary Election - June 14, 2016," June 15, 2016 These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available. | ||
2013
Governor Jack Dalrymple (R) appointed Jensen to the North Dakota Northeast Central Judicial District in November 2013 to replace Joel D. Medd, who retired as the state's longest-serving district judge.[5]
Analysis
Ballotpedia State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[6]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Jon Jay
Jensen
North Dakota
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Jensen was appointed by Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) in 2013 while the state was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in North Dakota
- See also: Judicial selection in North Dakota
The five justices of the North Dakota Supreme Court are chosen in nonpartisan elections. Judicial candidates compete in a primary election, and the top two candidates advance to the general election in November.[8] If a justice retires or dies in office, the governor may appoint a justice to the court for two years, when the appointed justice must then run in a nonpartisan election.[9]
Once elected, judges serve 10-year terms. At the expiration of a judge's term, he or she must run for re-election to remain on the court.[8]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. and state citizen and
- a licensed attorney.[8]
Chief justice
The court's chief justice is chosen by a vote of the supreme and district court judges to serve a five-year term.[8]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement with help from a judicial nominating commission. Alternatively, the governor may call a special election to fill the vacancy. Appointed judges are to serve for at least two years, after which they must run in the general election to finish the remainder of the unexpired term.[10] If a justice retires or dies in office, the governor may appoint a justice to the court for two years, when the appointed justice must then run in a nonpartisan election.[11] The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ KFYR TV, "Jon Jensen re-elected as ND Supreme Court Chief Justice," December 9, 2020
- ↑ North Dakota Courts, "Jon J. Jensen," accessed June 25, 2021
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 North Dakota Office of the Governor, "Dalrymple appoints Jon Jensen to Northeast Central Judicial District Bench," November 7, 2013
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Dakota," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ State of North Dakota, "Supreme Court," accessed September 8, 2022
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Dakota," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ State of North Dakota, "Supreme Court," accessed September 8, 2022
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