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The 69th Legislative Assembly has come to an end! Please help us improve our newsletter with your feedback! If you would like to have something added to the newsletter, email us at laura.dronen@demnpl.com. Spread the word about our newsletter by sharing our sign-up link today: https://demnpl.com/join-our-newsletter/.
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Looking for a way to help those affected by the devastating flooding in Texas? The Texas Democratic Party has assembled a list of organizations and individuals who are working on the ground in Kerrville, Hunt, Center Point and the surrounding areas impacted by flooding to deliver badly-needed resources to flood victims. Please consider donating to support the efforts of these groups!
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District 1 and 23 July Monthly Meeting
Sagas
18 2nd St E, Williston
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Come join like-minded people at the District 1 and 23 Dem-NPL July meeting on July 30 at 6 pm at Saga's in downtown Williston!
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How to Democrat in the Age of Trump Book Study
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Wed, Jul 30, 7:00pm-8:30pm CDT
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Fargo Public Library – Main Library
101 4th St N, Fargo
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The District 44 & 45 Dems are hosting a book study and all are welcome to join! We’ll be reading How to Democrat in the Age of Trump by Mike Lux. It’s a short but impactful book to guide where we go from here.
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District 45 Steak Fry
1001 1st Avenue South Fargo
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Join us for the District 45 Steak Fry!
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People's Townhall with Trygve Hammer - Minot
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Thu, Jul 31, 7:00pm-8:30pm CDT
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Carnegie Center
105 2nd Ave SE, Minot, ND 58701
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Real change starts with real conversations. Trygve Hammer, 2024 Democratic-NPL Congressional Candidate, is a retired Marine Corps officer and a veteran of the Global War on Terror. In his civilian life, he's taught 7-12 grade science in a rural school, worked as a roughneck on oil rigs in the Bakken, as a freight rail conductor, and as a counselor for Job Corps in Minot, aiming to give young people a hand up in starting their lives. On Thursday, July 31, 7 pm at Carnegie Center in Minot, he'll answer your questions about the issues our nation faces today.
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People’s Town Halls are happening in all 50 states and 7 territories! They are your chance to connect with neighbors, community leaders, and organizers to discuss the issues that matter most. These events are open, inclusive, and built to amplify your voice! Check out more here: https://democrats.org/peoples-town-halls/
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Cass County Dem-NPL Summerfest
Lindenwood Park
1905 Roger Maris Dr, Fargo
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It's always a great time at Summerfest with food, friends, and fun!
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Souris Valley Dem-NPL August Monthly Meeting
Parker Center
21 1st Ave SE, Minot
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Join the Souris Valley Dem-NPL at our August Monthly Meeting!
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All Democrats and Nonpartisan Leaguers in Minot and the surrounding area are welcome as we discuss news and upcoming events.
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We will be meeting at the Parker Center (21 1st Ave SE, Minot, ND) on Tuesday, August 12th. There will be a social from 6PM - 6:30PM followed by the meeting from 6:30PM - 7:30PM.
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We look forward to seeing you there!
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Mandan Community Picnic
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Thu, Aug 14, 5:30pm-7:30pm CDT
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Legion Park, Shelter 1
1111 10th Ave SW, Mandan
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It's picnic time! Join the Bismarck-Mandan Dem-NPL for our Mandan Community Picnic at Legion Park, Shelter 1 on Thursday, August 14!
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Locally Grown, Nationally Strong - An Evening With Malcolm Kenyatta
Join us on Friday, August 22nd in Manvel, ND for an energizing evening of community, conversation, and action! Enjoy dinner, a cash bar, and exciting raffle items as we hear from keynote speaker DNC Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta.
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- VIP Reception begins at 5:30 PM
- General Admission starts at 6:00 PM
- Programming begins at 6:30 PM (Open house style until 8:00 PM)
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Guests will leave engaged, energized, and equipped with tools and next steps to help create change heading into the 2026 elections.
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Battle of the Brats!
Sertoma Park, Shelter #10
Riverside Park Rd, Bismarck
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Mark your calendars. August is picnic time. Join the Bismarck-Mandan Dem-NPL at Sertoma Park Shelter 10 for Battle of the Brats!
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Burdick Dinner 2025 with Jess Piper
Radisson Blu Fargo
201 5th St N, Fargo, ND 58102
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The Burdick Dinner 2025 will be held on October 4th, 2025, at the Radisson Blu located in downtown Fargo! The fun-filled event will begin with a reception at 5:30pm followed by the dinner and program beginning at 6:30pm. Our featured speaker is Jess Piper, the Executive Direcor for Blue Missouri. We look forward to seeing you there!
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Purchase your tickets before September 12 for a $25 early bird discount!
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Help us spread our message—share these recent posts!
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‘How do we make sure people aren’t going hungry?’: North Dakota braces for changes to SNAP
There are already direct cuts to food programs that supported farmers, Sobolik said, pointing to the federal Local Food Purchase Assistance program cut earlier this year. It provided more than $1 million worth of locally farmed food to the food bank.
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“It’s heartbreaking because they were relying on us to purchase their food,” she said.
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Sobolik recalled a conversation she had with a particular grower who, upon learning the organization would no longer be able to purchase their tomatoes, told her they had lost a “lifeline” that helped feed their six kids. That family will now likely be in the food bank’s line, she said.
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North Dakota among the states reforming policies on sealing eviction records
“Most landlords wouldn’t even give people a second chance once they saw an eviction on someone’s record,” Braunberger said. “It didn’t matter if the case was from a decade ago or if it had been resolved. That record stuck to them like glue.”
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Letter: Legislature needs to address funding issue
Over $25 million in education funding for North Dakota has been recklessly frozen by the U.S. Department of Education. These funds provide critical support for over 100 after-school programs, essential teacher training, and academic support for students across the state. School Districts are in limbo. They have been told they will have to use local dollars at their own risk, since federal reimbursement isn’t guaranteed. Unfortunately, our Republican supermajority seems unbothered by this funding emergency. They either don’t care how this will impact thousands of North Dakota families, or they don’t know what to do. During the last legislative session, we faced a similar situation when urgent needs were met with delay and deflection. Now, even with six unused special session days, lawmakers are hesitating again, leaving children and educators in the lurch. Teachers face stalled professional development. Students will lose vital resources. Our Legislature has both the mandate and the means to act. This moment demands more than passive politics. It requires courage, clarity, and decisive leadership. If Congress won’t step up, North Dakota must.
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Funding for tribal services threatened by ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
President Donald Trump’s new “Big Beautiful Bill” endangers government funding used to provide services and organization training.
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O’Leary said the Office of Violence Against Women will be losing $208 million in fiscal year 2026 as a result of the bill. The office is responsible for providing funds to VAWA, which funds the tribal programs.
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“Our women and children are going to hurt if this funding is cut even more than it already is,” Native Women’s Society of the Great Plains Chairwoman Sadie Young Bird said. “Abuse isn’t going to stop because there isn’t funding. How are we going to do our work? These are some of the most vulnerable people in the country, and we’re just going to cut services to them?”
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Joel Heitkamp speaks to Trygve Hammer on the Burdick Job Corps
Joel Heitkamp is joined by former candidate for U.S. Congress, Trygve Hammer, while broadcasting from the North Dakota State Fair in Minot. Trygve served the country in the military, worked on the oilfield rigs, and taught North Dakota students as a 7-12th grades science teacher.
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ND United President, Nick Archuleta, expresses concern over funding shortages ahead of school year
Josh Boschee is a State Senator from Fargo, and is joined on "News and Views" by the President of North Dakota United, Nick Archuleta. Nick talks about funding issues ahead of the upcoming school year, services impacted by funding shortages, things to look forward to in this upcoming school year, and more.
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Randi Lamoureux Shares Her Story of the Loss of Her Child
Guest Host Jim Shaw is joined in studio by Randi Lamoureux to share the story of the loss of her child and why she decided to advocate for healthcare at all phases of pregnancy.
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Tribune editorial: Broadcasting funding cuts will hurt public
Our congressional delegation doesn't appear to have given enough thought to the impact of the cuts on public broadcasting. Their arguments about alternate funding fall flat.
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Prairie Public has provided quality broadcasting for families for many years. It’s a shame if the public loses free, quality programming because of the budget cuts.
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A Building Dilemma for Local Home Builders
Tariffs on Canadian imports are creating new worries for the local home building industry as its leaders anticipate having to pass increased costs on to consumers.
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They’re estimating the tariffs could add ten thousand dollars more to the cost of building a new home in the region over the next year or so.
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Port: We must imagine Doug Burgum happy
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Now imagine that your job today consists of being a prop in a side quest contrived by the president to distract the public from things like his close, personal, reportedly pornographic relationship with a notorious child rapist.
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This can't be what he wanted?
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Speaking out: Cramer, Hoeven, Fedorchak not honest about so-called 'Big, Beautiful' bill
We don’t need more sound bites or editorials coming from our congressional delegation about the bill’s benefits for this or that industry. We need honest acknowledgement that life is going to get worse for certain people. Our congressional delegation needs to explain what is so beautiful about enriching the “haves” at the expense of the “have-nots.”
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Hiding behind the banners of ag and energy to shift attention away from economic brutality is not transparency; it’s a sleight of hand.
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Letter: Medicaid cuts put programs for people with disabilities at risk
How are states supposed to fund programs when our budgets are stretched thin? In North Dakota, we are fortunate that our DD system does not have a waiting list to get on the DD waiver; however, other states have waiting lists that can last two years or more. North Dakota is heading in that direction with the cuts.
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Some families are deeply worried that the only option for their loved ones is institutionalization at places like the Life Skills and Transition Center in Grafton, rather than receiving support and independence within their own community. Additionally, this approach will cost North Dakota more than supporting them in their preferred communities.
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US Supreme Court to keep North Dakota district map in place until voting rights case wraps up
“We are relieved that Native voters in North Dakota retain the ability to protect ourselves from discrimination at the polls,” said Jamie Azure, chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “Our fight for the rights of our citizens continues.”
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Port: Rep. Julie Fedorchak’s husband takes a lobbying gig
Per the release, Mike Fedorchak will work “closely with lawmakers, regulatory agencies, and coalition partners to advance client priorities in Congress and the Administration.” It doesn’t mention the fact that Mike Fedorchak is married to a member of Congress. According to his biography on the firm’s website, his position will be vice president of federal affairs.
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Everything is bigger in Texas, including Oath Breakers
The true monster, then, is not regulation, but the ideological blindness that refuses to acknowledge the critical role of collective action, sound engineering principles, and genuinely enforced standards in safeguarding lives and livelihoods.
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We saw it—the deaths, damages, and systemic failures resulting from ideological blindness and the gutting of regulations— in North Carolina last fall. We saw it in Texas at the beginning of the month. And we are guaranteed to see it again, unless we finally demand accountability from those who swear to protect us.
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Check out these messages from national Democrats
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Medicaid cuts are likely to worsen mental health care in rural America
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Across the nation, Medicaid is the single largest payer for mental health care, and in rural America, residents disproportionately rely on the public insurance program.
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But Medicaid cuts in the massive tax and spending bill signed into law earlier this month will worsen mental health disparities in those communities, experts say, as patients lose coverage and rural health centers are unable to remain open amid a loss of funds.
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“The context to begin with is, even with no Medicaid cuts, the access to mental health services in rural communities is spotty at best, just very spotty at best — and in many communities, there’s literally no care,” said Ron Manderscheid, former executive director of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors.
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CBS News poll finds support for Trump's deportation program falls; Americans call for more focus on prices
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Trump Says He’s ‘Allowed’ To Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell Amid Epstein Files Controversy
Trump was asked about the possibility of pardoning Maxwell as she enters her second day of questioning by the DOJ and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
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Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted on charges of sex trafficking and transporting minors to participate in illegal sex acts, stemming from her role in Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse.
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Trump told reporters he “hadn’t thought about” pardoning Maxwell or commuting her sentence, adding, “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”
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How Trump Lost Control of the Epstein Narrative
For the past two weeks, President Trump has been trying and failing to get his supporters to stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein.
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David Enrich, a deputy investigations editor for The New York Times, and Shawn McCreesh, a Times White House correspondent, explain why MAGA won’t let go of this scandal, how the president misread his own base — and what all this shows about the limits of Mr. Trump’s power.
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Republicans’ food aid cuts will hit grocers in many towns that backed Trump
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The deep cuts Republicans made to federal nutrition programs this summer are poised to devastate independent grocery stores that are central to many low-income communities, including those that voted for President Donald Trump.
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Food aid recipients often make up the majority of small grocers’ customer base in remote areas and food deserts — places that have limited options for fresh, healthy food.
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Has Immigration Become Trump's Achilles Heel?
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It’s true that Trump ran on immigration. If you watched his marathon rallies or read the fine print, you’d know he promised a mass deportation program, carried out without regard for due process or human dignity.
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But that’s not what most voters thought they were signing up for.
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In Trump’s ads and campaign messaging, the focus was on deporting criminals, gang members, and recent border crossers. Now, voters are seeing something much different.
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A recent CBS News/YouGov poll found that 52% of Americans think Trump is deporting more people than they expected, and 56% believe he is prioritizing people who aren’t dangerous criminals.
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That’s a major shift—especially over just the last month. Since the previous poll, there’s been widespread media coverage of Trump-ordered raids at Home Depots, restaurants, parks, and neighborhoods. We’ve seen story after story about hardworking, taxpaying undocumented immigrants—some of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades—being detained and deported.
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When many Americans voted for Trump, they thought they were voting to deport MS-13 members, not the grandmother down the street. Now that voters are seeing the reality of Trump’s plan, they’re backing away.
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Independents Drive Trump's Approval to 37% Second-Term Low
Six months into his second term, President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has dipped to 37%, the lowest of this term and just slightly higher than his all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his first term. Trump’s rating has fallen 10 percentage points among U.S. adults since he began his second term in January, including a 17-point decline among independents, to 29%, matching his lowest rating with that group in either of his terms.
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Trump Is Teeing Up a Pardon of Epstein Accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell
I hope you’re putting these puzzle pieces together with me as we go. The bottom line here is obvious. Donald Trump, I believe, wants to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her silence. Note I said wants to. He might not. A pardon would rip his base in two. He may grasp that and not do it.
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Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Could Lead to 1,000 More Overdose Deaths A Year, Researchers Warn
“I’m angry,” says Dr. Benjamin Linas, the lead researcher behind the memo and a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University. “I think it’s a terrible policy. I think it’s doing nothing but making America unhealthy and increasing misery.”
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The bill’s provisions targeting Medicaid are expected to leave about 7.8 million people without health insurance in 2034 due to loss of coverage under the program, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Using that estimate, Linas and his colleagues projected, based on previous data about the proportion of people on Medicaid who receive medications for opioid use disorder, how many of those people will likely lose access to treatments. They then used simulation modeling to estimate how many additional fatal overdoses would occur in one year.
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Tim Miller: Trump Has Lost Control of Epstein Narrative
Tim Miller joins Katy Tur Reports to discuss Trump and Jeffrey Epstein—then finds out live on air that the DOJ briefed Trump his name appears multiple times in the Epstein files, according to new Wall Street Journal reporting.
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CBS News poll finds support for Trump's deportation program falls; Americans call for more focus on prices
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After six months that included a string of achievements on President Trump's legislative goals, views of his second term are increasingly defined by the difference between his political base, which likes what it sees, and the rest of the country, which has growing doubt.
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On the economic front, it comes from continued calls to focus more on prices, rather than tariffs, which most Americans oppose. And now, there's the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which at least initially, most believe will help the wealthy.
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On matters of deportation, differences hinge on who, and how many, Americans see as being targeted, as well as the use of detention facilities. Here again, the Republican and MAGA political base remain overwhelmingly approving of it all, but the rest of the American public has become less so.
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(On another matter, by comparison, most say the case of Jeffrey Epstein is not very important in their evaluations of the president, and in particular, the president's MAGA base remains overwhelmingly approving of his job performance, especially on immigration.)
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ChatGPT Gave Instructions for Murder, Self-Mutilation, and Devil Worship
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The Atlantic recently received a tip from a person who had prompted ChatGPT to generate a ritual offering to Molech. He’d been watching a show that mentioned Molech, he said, and casually turned to the chatbot to seek a cultural explainer. That’s when things got extremely weird. He was alarmed by the results. (The Atlantic agreed to grant him anonymity because he feared professional consequences—though he said he does not work in the tech industry.)
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I was easily able to re-create startlingly similar conversations of my own—as were two of my colleagues in their own separate chats. (We were repeatedly able to elicit these exchanges on both free and paid versions of ChatGPT.) In discussions beginning with anodyne questions about demons and devils—“Hi, I am interested in learning more about Molech”—we found that the chatbot can easily be made to guide users through ceremonial rituals and rites that encourage various forms of self-mutilation. In one case, ChatGPT recommended “using controlled heat (ritual cautery) to mark the flesh,” explaining that pain is not destruction, but a doorway to power.
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Guts, Spirit, and Grit: How to Make Progress in your Home State
That certainly holds true for Jess Piper – a rural Missourian with guts, spirit, and grit working to make change in rural and red states.
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Jess is a rural Missourian, former teacher, fundraiser for rural candidates, and a social media phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of followers.
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We were lucky enough to sit down with her and talk through a simple question: what’s wrong, and how do we fix it?
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Pete Hegseth seems to be on a mission to erase women from the top ranks of the U.S. armed forces.
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I was teaching senior officers, male and female, from all branches of the armed forces when Hegseth was still in high school. His view of women in the U.S. military would be beneath serious comment were he not, through the malpractice of the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, the sitting secretary of defense. Instead of defending the nation—or keeping track of the security of his own communications—he is trying to make the American military inhospitable to half of the nation’s population.
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As Nora Bensahel, a scholar of civil-military relations at Johns Hopkins University, told me, the firing of Davids and other women “is deliberately sending a chilling message to the women who are already serving in uniform, and to girls who may be thinking about doing so, that they are not welcome—even though the military would not be able to meet its recruiting numbers without those very same women.”
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Today is my late mother’s birthday. She enlisted in the Air Force and served during the Korean War. She came from a poor family, and had to leave the military when her father was dying. But she was deeply proud of her service in America’s armed forces; I remember watching her march in uniform in hometown parades. She would be heartbroken—and furious—to know that more than a half century after her service, the message to the women of the United States from the current commander in chief and his secretary of defense amounts to a sexist warning: Feel free to join the military and serve your country—but know your place.
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Trump visits Federal Reserve and tussles with Jerome Powell in extraordinary moment
"So we're taking a look, and it looks like it's about 3.1 billion [dollars]," Trump said. "Went up a little bit — or a lot."
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Powell pushed back on the president's assertion, responding: "I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed."
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The Fed chair then took the document, looked at it and said the additional costs the president was citing had been for a separate building whose construction was completed five years ago.
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House subcommittee holds surprise vote to subpoena DOJ for Epstein files
In a surprise move, a House Oversight subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena the Department of Justice for files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a highly contentious issue that has exposed major divisions within the Republican party
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Convicted Murderer Released by Trump From Venezuelan Prison Is Free in U.S.
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He killed three people in Spain and fled to Venezuela, where he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, court documents show. Then last week, the Trump administration negotiated his release as part of a large prisoner swap, and he arrived on American soil.
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Now, the convict, Dahud Hanid Ortiz, 54, a U.S. Army veteran, is free in the United States, according to two people with knowledge of the case. One said he was in Orlando, Fla.
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When the Americans put Mr. Hanid Ortiz on a plane on Friday back to the United States, at least some people in the Trump administration knew of his criminal past, according to a third person.
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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.
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Help us elect great Democrats up and down the ballot!
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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.
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Grassroots organizers are the lifeblood of the Dem-NPL! Sign up to volunteer with the Dem-NPL!
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