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Judy Estenson
Judy Estenson (Republican Party) was a member of the North Dakota State Senate, representing District 15. She assumed office on December 1, 2022. She left office on December 1, 2024.
Estenson (Republican Party) ran in a special election to the North Dakota State Senate to represent District 9. She lost in the special general election on November 5, 2024.
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Committee assignments
2023-2024
Estenson was assigned to the following committees:
Elections
2024
See also: North Dakota state legislative special elections, 2024
General election
Special general election for North Dakota State Senate District 9
Richard Marcellais defeated incumbent Judy Estenson in the special general election for North Dakota State Senate District 9 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Richard Marcellais (D) | 61.3 | 3,395 |
 | Judy Estenson (R) | 38.6 | 2,134 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 5 | ||
| Total votes: 5,534 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Special Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 9
Richard Marcellais advanced from the special Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 9 on June 11, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Richard Marcellais | 99.7 | 696 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 2 | ||
| Total votes: 698 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Jayme Davis (D)
Republican primary election
Special Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 9
Incumbent Judy Estenson advanced from the special Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 9 on June 11, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Judy Estenson | 98.9 | 847 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.1 | 9 | ||
| Total votes: 856 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Estenson in this election.
2022
See also: North Dakota State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for North Dakota State Senate District 15
Judy Estenson defeated Collette Brown in the general election for North Dakota State Senate District 15 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Judy Estenson (R) | 65.5 | 3,417 |
 | Collette Brown (D) | 33.9 | 1,768 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.6 | 33 | ||
| Total votes: 5,218 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 15
Collette Brown advanced from the Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 15 on June 14, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Collette Brown | 99.8 | 587 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 1 | ||
| Total votes: 588 | |||
| = 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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Republican primary election
Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 15
Judy Estenson defeated incumbent Dave Oehlke in the Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 15 on June 14, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Judy Estenson | 57.3 | 1,602 |
 | Dave Oehlke | 42.6 | 1,190 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 2 | ||
| Total votes: 2,794 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
2018
General election
General election for North Dakota State Senate District 23
Incumbent Joan Heckaman defeated Judy Estenson in the general election for North Dakota State Senate District 23 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Joan Heckaman (D) | 54.4 | 3,401 |
| Judy Estenson (R) | 45.5 | 2,842 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 6 | ||
| Total votes: 6,249 | |||
| = 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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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 23
Incumbent Joan Heckaman advanced from the Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 23 on June 12, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Joan Heckaman | 100.0 | 1,202 |
| Total votes: 1,202 | |||
| = 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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Republican primary election
Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 23
Judy Estenson advanced from the Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 23 on June 12, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Judy Estenson | 100.0 | 1,505 |
| Total votes: 1,505 | |||
| = 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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2014
Estenson ran for election to the office of North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture. Estenson was seeking the Republican nomination in the primary on June 10 but dropped out of the race on April 6 after she came second at the GOP state convention.[1]
Race background
The North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture also serves as a member on the state's three-member Industrial Commission. This commission, among many duties, regulates North Dakota's oil and gas industry.[2] The race for agriculture commissioner featured candidate disagreements over how to deal with the rush to extract oil and gas from the Bakken shale.
The incumbent, Republican Doug Goehring, expressed support for an accelerated rate of oil extraction, opposing legislation that might slow down the growth of drilling.[3] In a speech at the state Republican convention, he said that "the ties between agriculture and energy have never been more important that they are today." The North Dakota Farm Bureau endorsed his primary challenger, Judy Estenson.[4] Estenson lost the state GOP endorsement and dropped out of the race.[4][5]
The Democratic challenger, Ryan Taylor, expressed concern about the consequences of the oil rush. He said, "You can’t unleash all that oil and then wonder why the train tracks are full of oil tankers and you can’t get grain on from the elevators in North Dakota and get that product to market."[6] Taylor argued for greater weight on agricultural considerations.[6]
Campaign finance
Campaign finance disclosures filed by early October showed Goehring with $339,000 in contributions. Taylor raised $285,000 during the same time period.[7]
Issues background: Fracking
- See also: Fracking in North Dakota
Since oil was first discovered in 1951 in North Dakota, over 13,000 wells have been drilled. The graph to the right shows how oil production in the state increased from 45.14 million barrels in 2007 to 313.8 million barrels in 2013. A study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute estimated that in 2011, 12 percent of state employment and 13.1 percent of labor income were connected to the oil and gas industry.
The industry's rapid growth has attracted workers from outside the state, leading to increased demand for housing and public services such as police and fire departments. At the same time, environmental groups and local stakeholders expressed concern about the potential ecological effects of the boom. While hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been used in the United States for decades, some experts have questioned whether regulatory agencies have sufficient resources to consistently enforce environmental protections.[8][9][10][11]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Judy Estenson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Judy Estenson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
Estenson was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from North Dakota.
Delegate rules
Delegates from North Dakota to the 2016 Republican National Convention were selected by committee at the state Republican convention in April 2016. North Dakota GOP bylaws did not require delegates to indicate which presidential candidate they prefer at the time of their selection. At the national convention, delegates from North Dakota were unbound on all ballots.
Delegate allocation
North Dakota had 28 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention: 22 at-large delegates, three congressional district delegates, and three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates). Delegates to the state convention were selected at district conventions, where no presidential preference poll was taken. The state's Republican National Convention delegation was selected at the state GOP convention, April 1-3, 2016.[12][13]
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of North Dakota scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2024
In 2024, the North Dakota State Legislature was not in session.
2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the North Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 3 to April 29.
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See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Ag Week, "ND ag commissioner Goehring survives GOP endorsement challenge," April 8, 2014
- ↑ North Dakota Industrial Commission, "About," April 10, 2014
- ↑ Ag Week, "ND ‘extraordinary places’ policy approved, but comment process will apply only to public land," April 10, 2014
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bismarck Tribune, "N.D. GOP endorses incumbent for ag post," April 10, 2014 (dead link)
- ↑ Watchdog.org, "Future of ND oil boom could hinge on ag commission race," April 10, 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Taylor for North Dakota, "Jamestown Sun: Taylor calls for balance with oil in bid," April 10, 2014
- ↑ NewsOK, "ND agriculture commissioner contest more about oil," October 12, 2014
- ↑ North Dakota Energy Forum, "North Dakota Oil and Gas History," accessed July 25, 2014
- ↑ North Dakota Oil and Gas Division, "North Dakota Annual Oil Production," accessed October 15, 2014
- ↑ PricewaterhouseCooper LLP, "Economic Impacts of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry on the US Economy 2011," July 2013
- ↑ Stanford Law School Student Journals, "Local Government Fracking Regulations: A Colorado Case Study," January 2014
- ↑ Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Dave Oehlke (R) |
North Dakota State Senate District 15 2022-2024 |
Succeeded by Kent Weston (R) |
