‘Tis the season when Democrats and Republicans gather at conventions to decide who their endorsed candidates will be for the upcoming primary and general elections. I’m not sure there could be a more stark contrast between North Dakota’s largest political parties.
Republicans seated a record number of delegates last Saturday in Bismarck with 2,321. Democrats could only manage to round up 258 delegates. Yet much of the media coverage managed to gloss over that important fact in favor of predicting chaos for Republicans. One story even suggested “infighting was likely to erupt.” As a witness to the entire day, I can report that civility won the day despite a much watched battle for the GOP endorsement for the U.S. Senate.
In our legislature there are 119 Republicans and only 21 Democrats. Republicans hold 13 of the constitutional statewide offices. Democrats hold zero. The last Democrat to hold one of North Dakota’s three federal positions, Heidi Heitkamp, was defeated in 2018 by 11 points. This is total domination by one political party.
Yet, many of us conservatives are still enormously frustrated by what we see from a Democratic president and Congress. Every day feels like a battle to hold the ground gained in the era of President Donald Trump. That frustration led some in the Republican ranks to conclude that former Gov. John Hoeven, seeking his 3rd term in the U.S. Senate, wasn’t fighting hard enough. They put their support behind a retiring legislator,
Rick Becker, a Bismarck plastic surgeon. Becker is an eloquent champion of Republicans adopting a more Libertarian approach to governance. His accomplishments were thin during his time in the legislature, but he was successful in tapping into the frustrations with his oratory.
Hoeven isn’t much for bombastic speeches and the “red meat” approach to rile up the conservative crowd. He has a long record of fighting for ag, energy and the booming tech sector in North Dakota. But he is more of a doer than a talker. President Trump endorsed him and his family-values and pro-growth economic votes gained praise from most all of the key constituencies.
Becker’s team adopted a strategy of grabbing as many of the delegate slots at early district conventions. They started with a huge lead. But it motivated Hoeven supporters to beat the Becker backers at their own game in the later conventions, many of which were in higher population centers. You only need a simple majority.
Hoeven’s team had nearly 200 more votes when the first ballot was totaled. And those of us watching saw a healthy debate and a clear victory. Becker called for unity and rightly applauded his supporters, many of whom were new to the political process. Hoeven learned an important lesson as well. Don’t take it for granted that your supporters know how hard you are fighting.
Now North Dakota Republicans should do everything we can to help take back the majority in November. And we should channel our frustrations to demanding conservative principles at the local level. North Dakota is a beacon of success for Republicans. Let’s use it to do the most good where we live.
Scott Hennen hosts the statewide radio program “What’s On Your Mind?” On AM 1100 “The Flag”, KFYR AM 550, AM 1090 KTGO “The Flag” and AM 1460 KLTC. Email him at
ScottH@FlagFamily.com
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Forum’s editorial board nor Forum ownership.
