Notable North Dakota races, 2016

Notable North Dakota Races
Primary	June 14, 2016
General	November 8, 2016

2016 Notable Races
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Ballotpedia identified three notable North Dakota state legislative races in 2016.

HIGHLIGHTS

The Senate District 14 primary race was expected to be competitive.

In House District 14, two Republican incumbents competed with two challengers for placement on the November ballot.

The House District 28 race featured a rematch between four candidates.

Overview

Main articles: North Dakota House of Representatives elections, 2016 and North Dakota State Senate elections, 2016

Heading into the general election, North Dakota was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas.

State legislature remained Republican

A total of 46 seats in the North Dakota House of Representatives and a total of 23 seats in the North Dakota State Senate were up for election in 2016. The chamber remained Republican after 2016 given the Republicans' commanding majorities in both chambers. Democrats had to pick up 25 House seats and nine Senate seats to gain the majority.

Partisan breakdown of the North Dakota Legislature
Party	Republicans	Democrats
North Dakota House	71 seats	23 seats
North Dakota Senate	32 seats	15 seats

What makes a race notable?

Ballotpedia uses these criteria to identify notable races:

• Incumbents facing more conservative or liberal challengers
• Rematches between candidates
• Races that receive considerable media attention
• Races that could significantly affect the state's partisan balance
• Competitive races involving party leaders
• Open, competitive races with Republican and Democratic primaries
• Races that capture money and attention from outside groups, including key endorsements

Know of an interesting race we should include here? Email us!

Notable primary elections

State Senate District 14

The Republican incumbent competed with a primary challengers for placement on the November ballot.

Incumbent state Sen. Jerry Klein (R) ran for re-election. He defeated Glen Baltrusch (R) in the Republican primary contest by a margin of 79 percent to 21 percent. Dave Anderson (D) was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

According to the Say Anything Blog, a North Dakota politics and current events blog, the District 14 Republican primary race was expected to be "a competitive race."

State House District 14

Two Republican incumbents competed with two challengers for placement on the November ballot.

Incumbent state Reps. Jon Nelson (R) and Robin Weisz (R) ran for re-election. They were the top-two vote getters against Dennis Fred (R) and Albert Krueger (R) in the Republican primary contest and moved onto the general election. As the only two Democratic candidates, Bonita Lindseth (D) and Mark Nelson (D) moved onto the November ballot.

Fred, a former district party chair, stepped down from his position to run for the District 14 seat after the state Republican Party chair had requested his resignation; the state party viewed Fred's legislative run as a potential conflict of interest. Fred accused the state party of favoring Republican incumbents over conservative challengers. Fred said he ran for the seat "with the hopes of bringing the GOP back to the conservative principles. ... that your [the state's] Republican Party once stood for."

State House District 28

District 28 featured rematches between the candidates who ran in 2012.

Incumbent state Reps. Michael Don Brandenburg (R) and William Kretschmar (R) ran for re-election. Brandenburg and Jeffery Magrum (R) were the top two vote-getters against Kretschmar and Barton Schott (R) in the Republican primary contest. No Democrat filed to run.

The race was a candidate rematch between the four candidates, who all ran in the 2012 Republican primary election. Brandenburg and Kretschmar were the top two vote-getters in 2012, garnering 33.4 percent and 23.9 percent of the vote, respectively. Magrum and Schott garnered 23.8 percent and 18.9 percent, respectively.

While the North Dakota Republican Party endorsed incumbent Kretschmar, the party endorsed challenger Schott over incumbent Brandenburg.

Freshman legislators

The following is a list of challengers who won election on November 8.

1. Aaron McWilliams (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 20
2. Andrew Marschall (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 16
3. Arne Osland (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 20
4. Bernie Satrom (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 12
5. Bill Oliver (North Dakota) (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 4
6. Brandy Pyle (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 22
7. Craig Johnson (North Dakota) (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 6
8. Curt Kreun (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 42
9. Daniel Johnston (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 24
10. David Clemens (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 16
11. Diane Larson (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 30
12. Donald Longmuir (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 2
13. Emily O'Brien (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 42
14. Glenn Bosch (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 30
15. Jake Blum (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 42
16. Janne Myrdal (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 10
17. Jeffery Magrum (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 28
18. Jim Grueneich (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 12
19. Jim Roers (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 46
20. Jordan Kannianen (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 4
21. Karla Rose Hanson (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 44
22. Kathy Skroch (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 26
23. Luke Simons (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 36
24. Matthew Ruby (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 40
25. Merrill Piepkorn (Democratic), .North Dakota State Senate, District 44
26. Michael Howe (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 22
27. Patrick Heinert (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 32
28. Randy Schobinger (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 40
29. Scott Meyer (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 18
30. Sebastian Ertelt (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 26
31. Shannon Roers Jones (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 46
32. Shawn Vedaa (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 6
33. Steve Vetter (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 18
34. Terry B. Jones (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 4

Defeated incumbents

The following is a list of incumbents who were defeated on November 8.

1. Ben Hanson (Democratic), .U.S. House, North Dakota, At-Large District
2. Bill Amerman (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 26
3. Blair Thoreson (Republican), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 44
4. Bob Hunskor (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 6
5. Constance Triplett (Democratic), .North Dakota State Senate, District 18
6. David O'Connell (Democratic), .North Dakota State Senate, District 6
7. Gail Mooney (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 20
8. George B. Sinner (Democratic), .North Dakota State Senate, District 46
9. Jerome Kelsh (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 26
10. Jessica Haak (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 12
11. Kenton Onstad (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 4
12. Kylie Oversen (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 42
13. Mac Schneider (Democratic), .North Dakota State Senate, District 42
14. Naomi Muscha (Democratic), .North Dakota House of Representatives, District 24
15. Philip Murphy (Democratic), .North Dakota State Senate, District 20
16. Tim Flakoll (Republican), .North Dakota State Senate, District 44
17. Tyler Axness (Democratic), .North Dakota State Senate, District 16

See also

• North Dakota House of Representatives
• North Dakota State Senate
• North Dakota State Legislature
• State legislative elections, 2016

External links

Suggest a link

• Candidate list

Footnotes

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Current members of the North Dakota House of Representatives

Leadership

Speaker of the House:Robin Weisz

Majority Leader:Mike Lefor

Minority Leader:Zac Ista

Representatives

District 1

Patrick Hatlestad (R)

David Richter (R)

District 2

Bert Anderson (R)

Donald Longmuir (R)

District 3

Jeff Hoverson (R)

Lori VanWinkle (R)

District 4A

Lisa Finley-DeVille (D)

District 4B

Clayton Fegley (R)

District 5

Jay Fisher (R)

Scott Louser (R)

District 6

Dick Anderson (R)

Dan Vollmer (R)

District 7

Jason Dockter (R)

Matthew Heilman (R)

District 8

Mike Berg (R)

SuAnn Olson (R)

District 9

Collette Brown (D)

Jayme Davis (D)

District 10

Jared Hendrix (R)

Steve Swiontek (R)

District 11

Liz Conmy (D)

Gretchen Dobervich (D)

District 12

Mitch Ostlie (R)

Bernie Satrom (R)

District 13

Jim Jonas (R)

Austen Schauer (R)

District 14

Jon Nelson (R)

Robin Weisz (R)

District 15

Kathy Frelich (R)

Donna Henderson (R)

District 16

Ben Koppelman (R)

Andrew Marschall (R)

District 17

Landon Bahl (R)

Mark Sanford (R)

District 18

Nels Christianson (R)

Steve Vetter (R)

District 19

Karen Anderson (R)

David Monson (R)

District 20

Mike Beltz (R)

Jared Hagert (R)

District 21

LaurieBeth Hager (D)

Mary Schneider (D)

District 22

Brandy Pyle (R)

Jonathan Warrey (R)

District 23

Dennis Nehring (R)

Nico Rios (R)

District 24

Daniel Johnston (R)

Dwight Kiefert (R)

District 25

Alisa Mitskog (D)

District 26

Roger Maki (R)

Kelby Timmons (R)

District 27

Timothy Brown (R)

Greg Stemen (R)

District 28

Michael Brandenburg (R)

Jim Grueneich (R)

District 29

Craig Headland (R)

Don Vigesaa (R)

District 30

Glenn Bosch (R)

Mike Nathe (R)

District 31

Dawson Holle (R)

Karen Rohr (R)

District 32

Patrick Heinert (R)

Lisa Meier (R)

District 33

Anna Novak (R)

Bill Tveit (R)

District 34

Todd Porter (R)

Nathan Toman (R)

District 35

Karen Karls (R)

Bob Martinson (R)

District 36

Ty Dressler (R)

Dori Hauck (R)

District 37

Mike Lefor (R)

Vicky Steiner (R)

District 38

Dan Ruby (R)

Christina Wolff (R)

District 39

Keith Kempenich (R)

Mike Schatz (R)

District 40

Macy Bolinske (R)

Matthew Ruby (R)

District 41

Karen Grindberg (R)

Jorin Johnson (R)

District 42

Doug Osowski (R)

District 43

Zac Ista (D)

Eric Murphy (R)

District 44

Austin Foss (D)

Karla Hanson (D)

District 45

Carrie McLeod (R)

Scott Wagner (R)

District 46

James Kasper (R)

Desiree Morton (R)

District 47

Lawrence Klemin (R)

Mike Motschenbacher (R)

Republican Party (81)

Democratic Party (11)