North Dakota 2010 Election Results

North Dakota held its general election on November 2, 2010, deciding 72 legislative seats across 48 districts and 5 statewide offices. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Republicans, who already held the governorship and both chambers, won two-thirds majorities in each, going from 26-21 to 35-12 in the Senate and from 58-36 to 69-25 in the House. The party still held two-thirds of both chambers four years later.
• Every one of the 20 legislative seats that changed party went from Democrats to Republicans, and every incumbent who lost was a Democrat. In the Senate, Republicans picked up open Democratic seats, including Senate District 35, won by Margaret Sitte (R), and Senate District 27, where Spencer Berry (R) beat Rep. Lee Myxter (D). They also unseated five sitting Democrats:
  • Larry Luick (R) beat Arden Anderson (D) by 36 votes in Senate District 25, and a recount left the result unchanged.
  • Lonnie Laffen (R) ousted JoNell Bakke (D) in Senate District 43.
  • Ron Sorvaag (R) beat Tom Fiebiger (D) in Senate District 45.
  • Oley Larsen (R) unseated Robert Horne (D) in Senate District 3.
  • Gerry Uglem (R) beat Arthur Behm (D) in Senate District 19.
• In the House, where each district elects two members, Republicans ousted six Democratic incumbents:
  • Lisa Wolf (D) and Kari Lee Conrad (D) lost in House District 3, where Republicans took both seats.
  • Chris Griffin (D) in House District 19 and James Kerzman (D) in House District 31 also lost as Republicans took both seats in each.
  • William Devlin (R) edged Ben Vig (D) by about 70 votes for the second seat in House District 23.
  • Roger Brabandt (R) finished about 60 votes ahead of Louis Pinkerton (D) for the second seat in House District 5.
• Another 3 races finished within two points, and in two of them Democratic incumbents survived automatic recounts:
  • Lois Delmore (D) kept the second seat in House District 43 by 5 votes over Donald Dietrich (R).
  • Ed Gruchalla (D) held House District 45 by 8 votes over Andrew Marschall (R).
• Republicans won all five state offices on the ballot. Doug Goehring (R), appointed agriculture commissioner in 2009, beat House Minority Leader Merle Boucher (D), who gave up his legislative post to run, by about 36 points. The closest race was secretary of state, where Alvin Jaeger (R) beat Corey Mock (D) by about 25 points.
• Voters approved 1 of the 2 statewide measures. Amendment 1 created a legacy fund to bank a share of oil and gas tax revenue and limited how the money can be spent; it passed with about 64% of the vote. Initiative 2, which would have banned charging hunters a fee to kill captive big game or exotic mammals held in fenced enclosures, failed with about 43% support.

Legislature

• House (94 seats): 36 D, 58 R before the election, 25 D, 69 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (47 seats): 21 D, 26 R before the election, 12 D, 35 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures