|
|
|
During the 69th Legislative Assembly, North Dakota Democratic-NPL Insider will provide updates and calls to action each day of the regular session. If you would like to have something added to the newsletter, email us at laura.dronen@demnpl.com. Spread the word of our newsletter by sharing our sign-up link today: https://demnpl.com/join-our-newsletter/.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bismarck / Mandan Area Community Town Hall
|
Saturday, April 26, 2025 – 1:00 PM
|
Horizon Middle School
500 Ash Coulee Dr, Bismarck
|
Program: “Your Voice Matters”
|
- This town hall will focus on the Federal Policies of the Trump Administration
North Dakota Congressional Delegation have been invited.
- A video, “In Their Own Words,” will be presented in the absence of the Delegation Members
Citizens will have the opportunity to collaborate and prepare questions and concerns in writing to be delivered to the Delegation
- A moderator will invite individuals to share their questions/concerns
- A video recording of the town hall meeting will be presented to the congressional delegation and posted on Social media
|
Let’s stand together for Democracy, empower our Communities, and make our Voices Heard!
|
|
Bismarck Workers Memorial Day
|
Monday, April 28 , 2025 – 9:00 AM
|
|
From Missouri Slope Labor Council: We will honor those workers who were killed on the job in North Dakota over the last year by attaching printed ribbons with each of their names and ages around trees at the capitol to raise awareness for safety.
|
|
Fargo Workers Memorial Day
|
Monday, April 28 , 2025 – 5:00 PM
|
From Northern Plains United Labor Council, AFL-CIO: Join us April 28th for our annual Workers Memorial Day program, where we remember the workers who have died on the job in North Dakota and Minnesota in the last year.
|
|
RSVP Here: https://www.mobilize.us/aflcio/event/772488/
|
|
|
Thursday, May 1, 2025 – 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
|
600 E Boulevard Ave, Bismarck
|
|
From Prairie Action ND: This May Day, we will turn the page. This is the beginning of a new era—one where working families lead, immigrants are protected, and no one is left behind. This is not charity. This is not a request. We are reclaiming our power from corporate elites, and we will not be intimidated by Trump, Musk, or their billionaire backers. They’ve ruled for too long. Their time is up.
|
|
|
Thursday, May 1, 2025 – 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
|
Bringewatt Park
2205 24th Ave S, Grand Forks
|
|
From Prairie Action ND: Prior to the Workers Memorial, come protest the treatment of workers!
|
|
|
Thursday, May 1, 2025 – 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
|
Veterans Memorial Bridge
Main Ave Fargo
|
|
From Prairie Action ND: This May Day, we will turn the page. This is the beginning of a new era—one where working families lead, immigrants are protected, and no one is left behind. This is not charity. This is not a request. We are reclaiming our power from corporate elites, and we will not be intimidated by Trump, Musk, or their billionaire backers. They’ve ruled for too long. Their time is up.
|
|
|
Thursday, May 1, 2025 – 5:15 PM - 6:15 PM
|
|
From Prairie Action ND: This May Day, we will turn the page. This is the beginning of a new era—one where working families lead, immigrants are protected, and no one is left behind. This is not charity. This is not a request. We are reclaiming our power from corporate elites, and we will not be intimidated by Trump, Musk, or their billionaire backers. They’ve ruled for too long. Their time is up.
|
|
|
Thursday, May 1, 2025 – 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
|
City Hall
10 3rd Ave SW, Minot
|
|
From Prairie Action ND: This May Day, we will turn the page. This is the beginning of a new era—one where working families lead, immigrants are protected, and no one is left behind. This is not charity. This is not a request. We are reclaiming our power from corporate elites, and we will not be intimidated by Trump, Musk, or their billionaire backers. They’ve ruled for too long. Their time is up.
|
|
|
8th Annual Governors Dinner with Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn
|
Saturday, May 3, 2025 – 6:15 PM
|
The Annual Governors Dinner Fundraiser, featuring January 6 Capitol Police officer and former Congressional candidate Harry Dunn, is May 3rd at 6:15 pm, in Mandan.
|
|
We are so excited to welcome Mr. Dunn to ND and we hope you will plan to join us!
|
|
|
|
District 11 Legislative Session Forum
|
Saturday, May 10, 2025 – 9:00 AM
|
|
ALL RESIDENTS OF DISTRICT 11 WELCOME!
|
📍 FARGO SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL: Room C30
📅: Saturday, May 10th 2025
🕰️: 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
|
|
District 44 Public Forum
|
Saturday, May 10, 2025 – 10:00 AM
|
|
Sen. Josh Boschee and Reps. Karla Rose Hanson and Austin Foss will provide updates about the session and take questions
|
|
District 2 Monthly Meeting
|
Saturday, May 10, 2025 – 2:00 PM
|
Wildrose Fire Hall
416 Main Street, Wildrose
|
|
Join the D2 Dems in Wildrose, ND, for our monthly meeting. Our featured speaker will be Tyler Stafslien, a local farmer and member of the North Dakota Farmers Union board of directors, representing Burke, Divide, Mountrail, Renville, and Williams counties. Tyler will speak with us about the impact of tariffs on North Dakota farmers and provide an update on the Farm Bill. To learn more about Tyler: https://ndfu.org/about/leadership/state-board/tyler-stafslien/
|
|
Cass County Democratic-NPL Policy Meeting
|
Tuesday, May 14, 2025 – 5:30 PM
|
1325 23rd St S, Suite B, Fargo
|
|
Sen. Josh Boschee and Reps. Karla Rose Hanson and Austin Foss will provide updates about the session and take
|
|
Our monthly meeting which includes representatives from the 11 Legislative Districts in Cass County, elected Legislators and staff.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Help us spread our message—share these recent posts!
|
|
|
|
|
ND State Rep. Zac Ista gives an update on private school voucher bills at the end of the session
Joel Heitkamp is broadcasting from Selfridge, ND, and is joined by State Representative Zac Ista from the Capitol. Zac is an Attorney and has been in the State Legislature since 2020, and serves as the House Minority Leader. They talk about the status of the school voucher bills and what the end of the session will bring.
|
|
|
|
North Dakota House votes down last standing school choice bill
The House on Thursday night voted 78-14 to kill Senate Bill 2400, with no floor discussion. The bill would have made ESAs available to all North Dakota school children.
|
|
|
|
House sustains veto on ESA bill
|
House Bill 1540 would have created educational savings accounts for private school students starting with the 2026-27 school year.
|
|
Supporters argued that the bill is a way of expanding school choice.
|
The vote to override was 48-to-45 against. At least a two-thirds majority was needed in support of the bill to override the veto.
|
|
|
|
Cally Musland chats with Brenna Gerhardt about DOGE cuts
Cally Musland, former Producer for "News and Views" and current Editor of North Dakota Living, is filling in for Joel Heitkamp. She's joined by the Executive Director of Humanities North Dakota, Brenna Gerhardt. Humanities North Dakota is an independent nonprofit agency, which provides free or low-cost, accessible meaningful classes and events for North Dakotans to pursue lifelong learning.
|
|
|
|
Votes fail to overturn vetoes of library bill, private school funding
|
Armstrong vetoed Senate Bill 2307, a library obscenity bill, and House Bill 1540, that would have used taxpayer dollars to support private school tuition vouchers.
|
A two-thirds majority was needed to override the vetoes.
|
The library bill got fewer votes in the Senate on Friday than it had when the bill passed, despite the pleas of bill sponsor Sen. Keith Boehm, R-Mandan, and other supporters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday Federal News Round-Up
The Trump Administration has arrested a judge
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said:
|
In this country, people who are suspected of criminal wrongdoing are innocent until their guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt and they are found guilty by a jury of their peers—this is the fundamental demand of justice in America.
|
Unfortunately, we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump Administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor.
|
I have deep respect for the rule of law, our nation’s judiciary, the importance of judges making decisions impartially without fear or favor, and the efforts of law enforcement to hold people accountable if they commit a crime. I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law.
|
Trump Lodges Attacks on Grassroots Donations to Undermine Democratic Participation
- Donald Trump’s memorandum targeting ActBlue is designed to undermine democratic participation — and it’s no wonder why.
- Trump knows Americans are already fed up with his chaotic agenda that is driving the economy off a cliff, so he’s trying to block lawful grassroots donations from supporters giving just $5 or $10 to candidates who oppose him while further empowering the corrupt billionaires who already control his administration.
- Democrats are unified as they stand with the millions of Americans who are fighting back against Trump’s dangerous abuses of power.
In response to Donald Trump’s memorandum targeting ActBlue, DNC Chair Ken Martin, DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, DGA Chair Laura Kelly issued the following statement:
|
Donald Trump’s memorandum targeting ActBlue is designed to undermine democratic participation — and it’s no wonder why. He knows Americans are already fed up with his chaotic agenda that is driving the economy off a cliff, so he’s trying to block lawful grassroots donations from supporters giving just $5 or $10 to candidates who oppose him while further empowering the corrupt billionaires who already control his administration. As Democrats, we’re unified in standing with the millions of Americans who are fighting back against Trump’s dangerous abuses of power.
|
DNC and ASDC Announces “Organize Everywhere, Win Anywhere” Strategy – Largest-Ever Monthly DNC Investment into Democratic State and Territory Parties
Under the new State Partnership Program (SPP) agreement, each state party will receive a baseline of $17,500 a month, a $5,000 per month increase over the last agreement, and Republican-controlled states will receive an additional investment of $5,000 a month through the DNC’s Red State Fund, putting their total at $22,500 every month. The combined investments total a monthly transfer of more than $1 million from the DNC to state parties – the committee’s largest investment into Democratic state parties in history. Additionally, the DNC makes significant investments into the technology that powers the Democratic Party, including maintaining the national voter file with robust augmentations and giving state parties best-in-class tools for accessing and leveraging that data. Each state party receives six figures worth of data and tooling annually.
|
These resources will allow Democratic state parties to invest in critical infrastructure and staffing, strengthen their data and tech operations, build on-the-ground organizing programs, and better prepare for upcoming election cycles – not just in the months ahead, but in the years to come. Additionally, the new agreement includes the DNC’s commitment to hosting six regional training “bootcamps” for state parties per two-year cycle and the hiring of new ASDC staff, including five regional directors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Ticking Clock on American Freedom
|
People sometimes call the descent into authoritarianism a “slide,” but that makes it sound gradual and gentle. Maria Ressa, the journalist who earned the Nobel Peace Prize for her attempts to save freedom of expression in the Philippines, told me that what she experienced during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte is now, with startling speed and remarkable similarity, playing out in the United States under Donald Trump. Her country’s democratic struggles are highly instructive. And her message to me was this:
|
Authoritarian leaders topple democracy faster than you can imagine. If you wait to speak out against them, you have already lost.
|
Shortly after Trump was reelected last fall, I called Ressa to ask her how she thought Americans should prepare for his return. She told me then that she worried about a failure of imagination. She knew that the speed of the destruction of institutions—one of the first steps an authoritarian takes to solidify and centralize power—would surprise people here, even those paying the closest attention. Ressa splits her time between Manila and New York, and she repeatedly warned me to be ready for everything to happen quickly. When we spoke again weeks after his inauguration, Ressa was shaken. President Trump was moving faster than even she had anticipated.
|
|
|
|
Trump Just Did the Most Corrupt Thing Any President Has Ever Done
Trump announced this week that the top 220 buyers of his $Trump (strump, as in strumpet) meme coin between now and mid-May will be invited to an exclusive dinner on May 22 (“a night to remember”) at his golf club outside Washington, D.C. The Washington Post and other outlets have reported that in the days since the announcement, “buyers have poured tens of millions of dollars” into the coin; further, that the holders of 27 crypto wallets have acquired at least 100,000 coins apiece, “stakes worth about a million dollars each.” Holders of crypto wallets are anonymous, if they want to be, so the identities of these people (or businesses or countries or sovereign wealth funds or whatever they might be) are unknown and will presumably remain so until the big dinner or, who knows, maybe for all time.
|
|
|
|
FBI arrests Wisconsin judge and accuses her of obstructing immigration officials
|
Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat representing Wisconsin, called the arrest of a sitting judge a “gravely serious and drastic move” that “threatens to breach” the separation of power between the executive and judicial branches.
|
“Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,” Baldwin said in an emailed statement after Dugan’s arrest.
|
|
Setting the Record Straight on Autism
|
Kennedy’s pursuit of a cause for autism involves searching through private records of Americans according to statements made by NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. This potentially may include private medical records involving private insurers, smartwatches, and fitness trackers according to NIH. The details are vague and as such I am taking caution to not cite specifics, but the broad statements are deeply concerning for many autistic Americans because we do not have assurances of how the data will be kept private and even whether or not it will be kept private at all.
|
This massive invasion in the privacy of autistic Americans creates an unnecessary risk in the event of a data breach. This violates the trust we put into private institutions to keep our data protected. This creates anxieties that the USA will repeat its very recent history involving eugenics. All of this could potentially be avoided by giving specifics and following the safe limitations that most researchers follow, but was not a stated concern or goal by either the NIH or the HHS.
|
|
|
|
Not Just a Blue Dot in a Sea of Red: April 5th Protests Across Rural America
|
On April 5th, 2025, people took to the streets across the country to protest the Trump administration’s broad actions aimed at reducing, defunding, and – in specific cases – closing entirely various federal agencies. While there were large protests in cities like New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and more, rural communities also showed up, sometimes with significant percentages of the local population.
|
According to data compiled by We (The People) Dissent, and analyzed by the Daily Yonder, at least 400 protests, under a collective name of “Hands Off!,” took place in rural counties on Saturday, April 5th, with almost every state having at least one protest in a rural county.
|
|
|
|
Beto: 3 Things To Help STOP TRUMP Right Now
Since this country's founding, we have been tested. And the Americans before us somehow stood up and fought the good fight. We can't be the generation that loses it all 249 years into this experiment. But that doesn't mean we can't laugh about the stupid clowns—like Trump showing once again that he has no idea how tariffs work. Plus, RFK's dangerous proposed autism registry is selling a cruel fantasy. And Democrats need to lock down what they're selling and listen to what voters want from the government. Beto O'Rourke joins Tim Miller.
|
|
|
|
Committees
|
Every bill is voted on in the North Dakota legislature, but first, it must go through a committee hearing. The committee will vote to give the bill a "Do Pass" or a "Do Not Pass" recommendation. Below is a list of Standing Committees this legislative session.
|
|
|
|
Senate Standing Committee Members
|
|
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
Meets Monday through Friday
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
Desiree Van Oosting (R-36)
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
Desiree Van Oosting (R-36)
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
|
|
House Standing Committee Members
|
|
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
Gretchen Dobervich (D-11)
|
|
Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R-25)
|
|
Meets Monday through Friday
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
|
Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R-25)
|
|
Patrick R. Hatlestad (R-1)
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
|
Mike Motschenbacher (R-47)
|
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
Gretchen Dobervich (D-11)
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
|
Lisa Finley-DeVille (D-4A)
|
|
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
|
|
Lawrence R. Klemin (R-47)
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
Patrick R. Hatlestad (R-1)
|
|
Lawrence R. Klemin (R-47)
|
|
Mike Motschenbacher (R-47)
|
|
Meets Thursday and Friday
|
|
Lisa Finley-DeVille (D-4A)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Century Club supports our year-round work to build party infrastructure supporting candidate recruitment, local district and regional leadership, issue-based education, and tools for Dem-NPL success.
|
|
|
|
|
Help us elect great Democrats up and down the ballot!
|
|
|
|
|
The North Dakota Democratic-NPL is launching a new grassroots program called “Neighbor to Neighbor” where volunteers will connect with voters in your community to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. As a volunteer, you will be responsible for connecting with voters in 25 homes in your neighborhood or friends and family to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot about 3-4 times this year.
|
|
|
|
Grassroots organizers are the lifeblood of the Dem-NPL! Sign up to volunteer with the Dem-NPL!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
