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Jon Jay Jensen

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Jon Jay Jensen
Image of Jon Jay Jensen
North Dakota Supreme Court
Tenure

2017 - Present

Term ends

2030

Years in position

8

Compensation

Base salary

$186,484

Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 3, 2020

Appointed

2017

Education

Bachelor's

Minnesota State University, Mankato

Law

University of North Dakota School of Law

Contact

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
Image of Jon Jay Jensen
Jon Jay Jensen (Nonpartisan)
 
99.1
 
290,346
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.9
 
2,703

Total votes: 293,049
Candidate Connection = candidate completed 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
Image of Jon Jay Jensen
Jon Jay Jensen (Nonpartisan)
 
99.6
 
128,347
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.4
 
570

Total votes: 128,917
Candidate Connection = 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

See also: North Dakota local trial court judicial elections, 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
Green check mark transparent.png 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
Green check mark transparent.png 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)

See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship and Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters

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

See also: How vacancies are filled in state supreme courts

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


External links

Footnotes

  1. KFYR TV, "Jon Jensen re-elected as ND Supreme Court Chief Justice," December 9, 2020
  2. North Dakota Courts, "Jon J. Jensen," accessed June 25, 2021
  3. We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
  4. The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
  5. 5.0 5.1 North Dakota Office of the Governor, "Dalrymple appoints Jon Jensen to Northeast Central Judicial District Bench," November 7, 2013
  6. 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.
  7. 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. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Dakota," accessed August 16, 2021
  9. State of North Dakota, "Supreme Court," accessed September 8, 2022
  10. National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Dakota," accessed August 16, 2021
  11. State of North Dakota, "Supreme Court," accessed September 8, 2022