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Sean Cleary (North Dakota)
Sean Cleary (Republican Party) is a member of the North Dakota State Senate, representing District 35. He assumed office on December 1, 2022. His current term ends on December 1, 2026.
Cleary (Republican Party) is running for re-election to the North Dakota State Senate to represent District 35. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]
Biography
Sean Cleary was born in Bismarck, North Dakota. Cleary graduated from St. Mary's Central High School in 2010. He earned a bachelor's degree in social and behavioral sciences from the University of Mary in 2013 and a master's degree in applied economics from the University of North Dakota in 2017. Cleary's career experience includes working as a grant writer with the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, an implementation project manager with National Information Solutions Cooperative, and a regional director with the U.S. Senate.[1][2][3]
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
Cleary was assigned to the following committees:
Elections
2026
See also: North Dakota State Senate elections, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for North Dakota State Senate District 35
Incumbent Sean Cleary (R) is running in the general election for North Dakota State Senate District 35 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Sean Cleary (R) | |
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
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2022
See also: North Dakota State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for North Dakota State Senate District 35
Sean Cleary defeated incumbent Tracy Potter in the general election for North Dakota State Senate District 35 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sean Cleary (R) | 60.0 | 3,644 |
 | Tracy Potter (D) | 39.6 | 2,406 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 27 | ||
| Total votes: 6,077 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 35
Incumbent Tracy Potter advanced from the Democratic primary for North Dakota State Senate District 35 on June 14, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Tracy Potter | 99.3 | 575 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.7 | 4 | ||
| Total votes: 579 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 35
Sean Cleary defeated Ryan Eckroth in the Republican primary for North Dakota State Senate District 35 on June 14, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sean Cleary | 69.7 | 1,300 |
| Ryan Eckroth | 30.2 | 563 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 2 | ||
| Total votes: 1,865 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Sean Cleary has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Sean Cleary asking him to fill out the survey. If you are Sean Cleary, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?
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You can ask Sean Cleary to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing seandcleary13@gmail.com.
2022
Sean Cleary completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cleary's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Sean is an alumnus of the University of Mary and earned a master’s degree in Applied Economics from the University of North Dakota. He is an active member of the Bismarck community, serving on the boards of the Bismarck-Mandan Tennis Association, North Dakota Assistive, and the University of Mary Alumni Association. He is a member of the Rotary and an active volunteer with Junior Achievement. He is Catholic and is a member of the Corpus Christi parish.
- Cleary plans to bring conservative North Dakota values to the Legislature, where he will fight for increased transparency and responsiveness to taxpayers.
- Cleary will focus on growing our economy through providing better educational opportunities, lowering taxes, and advocating for increased investment in North Dakota.
- Cleary has a history of advocating for North Dakotans at the state and federal levels, and will use that experience to serve his district and state.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
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.
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
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show]. |
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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
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate North Dakota State Senate District 35 |
Officeholder North Dakota State Senate District 35 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 13, 2022
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Sean Cleary," accessed January 30, 2023
- ↑ North Dakota Legislative Branch, "Sean Cleary," accessed January 30, 2023
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Tracy Potter (D) |
North Dakota State Senate District 35 2022-Present |
Succeeded by - |
