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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 [email protected]. Spread the word of our newsletter by sharing our sign-up link today: https://demnpl.com/join-our-newsletter/.
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Keep Public Dollars in Public Schools!
Yesterday, we told you about Rep. Ben Koppelman's (R-16) bill (HB 1540) that would divert public funds to private schools and how it will be heard on Monday, March 17 in the Senate Education Committee. A similar bill has a hearing in the House Education Committee on Tuesday, March 18. Sen. Michelle Axtman's bill (SB 2400) narrowly passed the Senate and can be stopped in the House!
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The private school lobby is pretty vocal. Let's make sure our voices are not drowned out; submit testimony to let the committee know how important fully funding PUBLIC schools is to you!
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District 15 Reorganization Meeting
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Saturday, March 15, 2025 – 10:00 AM
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Lake Region Public Library
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423 7th Street Northeast, Devils Lake
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District 15 Democratic-NPL Party District Reorganization Meeting
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2025 Souris Valley Dem-NPL District Reorganization Conventions
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Saturday, March 15, 2025 – Noon
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IBEW Local 714 Minot Office
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The Souris Valley Dem-NPL 2025 District Reorganization Conventions for Districts 3, 5, 38, and 40 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 15th at noon at the IBEW Local 714 Hall (125 35th Ave NE, Minot, ND) in northwest Minot. Sen. Josh Boschee, DNC Committeeman Jamie Selzler, and Dem-NPL Executive Director Cheryl Biller will be there to speak with local Democrats. A lunch of chili and knoephla soup will be provided. Anyone who is a resident of District 3, 5, 38, or 40 who shares the ideals of the Dem-NPL is free to attend and participate. There are no party dues or other requirements for participation.
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The purpose of our 2025 District Conventions is to elect new leadership for each of the local district organizations in 3, 5, 38, and 40. The leadership of each Dem-NPL district organization is tasked with the important work of organizing fellow Dem-NPLers in the district to help support our candidates up and down the ballot.
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Dist 29 Dem-NPL Reorganization Meeting
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Sunday, March 16, 2025 – 2:00 PM
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District 29 Democratic-NPL will host their Re-Organization meeting March 16 2pm at the Pekin Community Center.
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District 28 Dem - NPL Reorganization Meeting
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Sunday, March 16, 2025 – 2:00 PM
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District 28 Dem-NPL will be hosting their Reorganization meeting at Growing Small Towns in Oakes, ND on Sunday, March 16th starting at 2pm.
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Bismarck-Mandan Dem-NPL Reorganization Meeting
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Saturday, March 22, 2025 – 10:00 AM
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If you have concerns about the future of our democracy, then it is time for you to get involved in civic engagement. You are invited to join the Bismarck/Mandan Democratic-NPL party and participate in our reorganization meeting in March! No dues, no litmus test. Know that your views, suggestions, and concerns are welcome.
Mark your calendar. More details to follow!
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D12 Reorg
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Sunday, March 23, 2025 – 11:30 AM
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the club room
210 3rd St SW Jamestown
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Join the District 12 DEM-NPL to elect the District Leadership we need for the next election cycle. Want to help organize positive community events? Don’t want public dollars going to private schools? Join in and make a difference. Change begins at the District level. The reorganization meeting will be March 23rd, 2024 at 11:30 am to 2 pm. Join us for a potluck to start and stay for the Jamestown Trivia at the end. We will meet at The Club Room 210 3rd St SW, Jamestown, ND
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Rally to Save USPS
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Sunday, March 23, 2025 – 1:00 PM
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Not a Dem-NPL event, but many of you may be interested in this event organized by National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 205.
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“Our jobs, our service, and the entire Postal Service are on the line. We need everyone’s help in our fight like hell against these attacks."
“These local rallies nationwide will bring together NALC members and the public to show their support for letter carriers, all postal employees, and the Postal Service,” NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said. “At a crucial time, this is an opportunity to educate our customers about everything at stake if the Postal Service is privatized or restructured.
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NALC Branch 205 Hell No! To Dismantling the Postal Service
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Sunday, March 23, 2025 – 2:00 PM
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Downtown Fargo Post Office - Federal Building
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Not a Dem-NPL event, but many of you may be interested in this event organized by National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 205.
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“Our jobs, our service, and the entire Postal Service are on the line. We need everyone’s help in our fight like hell against these attacks."
“These local rallies nationwide will bring together NALC members and the public to show their support for letter carriers, all postal employees, and the Postal Service,” NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said. “At a crucial time, this is an opportunity to educate our customers about everything at stake if the Postal Service is privatized or restructured.
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Legislative Update on Education
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Saturday, March 29, 2025 – 10:00 AM
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Rustad Recreation Center
601 26th Ave E, West Fargo
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Districts 10, 13, 16, and 21 Dem-NPL leadership are proud to invite the public to a Legislative Update on Education on March 29th at the Rustad Recreation Center in West Fargo from 10am to 12pm!
Senators Kathy Hogan (21) and Ryan Braunberger (10) and Representatives Mary Schneider (21) and LaurieBeth Hager (21) will be there to talk about their priorities with the remainder of the legislative session regarding education and by extension funding/taxes. There will be an open question segment for the public after the short addresses from each legislator.
We will have donuts and coffee courtesy of District 13!
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District 44 Legislative Forum
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Saturday, March 29, 2025 – 10:00 AM
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Roosevelt Elementary School Community Room
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Join us for our third public forum of the 2025 legislative session! Sen. Josh Boschee, Rep. Karla Rose Hanson & Rep. Austin Foss will provides updates and take questions.
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District 14 Democratic/NPL Reorganizing Meeting
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Saturday, March 29, 2025 – 12:30 PM
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Hometown Tavern
114 8th St W, Harvey
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Now is the time to get organized to fight back on the terrible trump agenda and to prepare for the 2026 elections. Join us for an optional lunch at noon (lasagna dinner for $13) or for the meeting which will start at 12:30.
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District 1 and 23 Reorganizing Meeting
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Saturday, March 29, 2025 – 2:00 PM
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Williston State College
1410 University Avenue Williston
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Come join the District 1 and 23 Dem-NPL at our reorganizing meeting! We will be meeting on March 29th at the Ready Room at Frontier Hall on the campus of Williston State College Meeting will start at 2PM.
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8th Annual Governors Dinner with Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn
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Saturday, May 3, 2025 – 6:15 PM
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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.
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We are so excited to welcome Mr. Dunn to ND and we hope you will plan to join us!
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Help us spread our message—share these recent posts!
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North Dakota revenue growth slowing amid drop in oil prices
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The Democratic-NPL Party urged lawmakers to support families by investing in health care, affordable housing, free school meals and property tax reductions.
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“Retirement accounts are down, egg prices are up, and middle class families are bearing the brunt,” Sen. Josh Boschee, D-Fargo, said in a statement. “The last thing we should do right now is give public tax dollars to private schools instead of investing in our public schools.”
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North Dakota still waiting to find out what Education Department cuts mean for schools, colleges
Archuleta noted that staff layoffs have happened at the Education Department before – he cited President Bill Clinton’s administration as one such example – but said the latest round of cuts was chaotic and poorly planned.
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“I don’t think anybody took into consideration how any and all of these cuts are going to affect the children that are being served,” Archuleta said. “If we really care about kids, we need to tap the brakes. We need to evaluate which programs are necessary and unnecessary, which personnel are vital to the mission and which are not, and then make decisions accordingly.”
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Why is an Elon Musk-backed PAC running an ad against Republican state legislators?
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North Dakota Republican Rep. Jon Nelson said the only truthful statement in the ad is the spelling of his name. Nelson said he introduced a bill this session with a goal of continuing the 340B program as it exists.
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Nelson said the pharmaceutical industry wants to get rid of the program because “long story short, they don’t want to sell their drugs at a discount.”
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It’s all puzzling, Nelson said, because he doesn’t know of any organized effort to end the program.
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Tribal lawmakers push for creation of missing Indigenous people task force
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Supporters say a task force is needed to expedite the process to help murdered and missing indigenous persons.
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“Together we can create a system of accountability, empower tribal nations, and restore faith in justice for families who have been waiting for far too long,” said Rep. Jayme Davis, D-Rolette.
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“By approving this bill, we send a clear message to North Dakota’s tribal nations that their safety and well-being matter,” said Rep. Lisa Finley-Deville, D-New Town.
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Senators keep vote on gay marriage resolution hidden
Senators defeated a resolution calling for overturning gay marriage rights in a 31-to-16 vote Thursday. How each one voted will remain an unknown.
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Resolutions in the Senate are usually voted on by voice vote. Sen. Diane Larson, R-Bismarck, called for a verification vote, meaning each member would need to register their vote privately.
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Letter: Prairie Public bill is a made-up concern
Republican Rep Jorin Johnson said “In this DOGE era of budgetary sense, this money would be better allocated to other public services like education, health care or infrastructure." I would like to remind Rep Johnson that DOGE is not an official government agency. Government agencies can only be established by Congress, no one should be following orders from Elon Musk or this fraud of an agency.
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Friday Federal News Round Up - 7 March 2025
Tariffs, Trade Wars, and Tesla
On Thursday, Legislators heard an updated revenue forecast for the next two years. Because of Trump's trade wars and lower oil prices, state revenues are expected to grow at a slower pace. Beyond our state budget, North Dakota farmers are some of the first victims of Trump’s trade war.
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Many analysts are warning it’s about to get much worse. CNBC reporter Steve Liesman said, “I’m going to say this at the risk of my job, but what President Trump is doing is insane…and now he’s saying he’s putting 50 percent tariffs on Canada unless they agree to become the 51st state. That is insane. There’s just no other way of describing it.”
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CNBC’s senior analyst and commentator Ron Insana remarked today, “I don't think that the markets appreciate fully the extent to which the Trump administration really wants to reorder the post-World War Two architecture, both in economic terms and geopolitical terms. And I think that's the big risk going forward, that they're missing the big picture. They're selling off on this nervousness over tariffs and trade and a handful of other things. But I think in the longer run, they may have bigger problems to deal with.”
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NYU marketing Professor Scott Galloway said, “You know who the biggest winner here is? China. China has literally deployed dozens if not hundreds of their diplomats to the biggest European and Latin American companies, and they've said the following, ‘you may not love us, but you can count on us… We are open for business, we love commerce, we are a dependable, consistent partner.’”
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Trump is attacking free speech to instill fear
It’s clear that the Trump administration is preparing to attack anyone who it perceives as a political enemy.
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On Saturday, Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident (green card holder) and leader in some of the Columbia Gaza protests last year, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement even though he has not been charged with a crime. During Trump’s first term, legal analysis from ICE concluded, “generally, aliens who reside within the territory of the United States stand on equal footing with U.S. citizens to assert First Amendment liberties.” Michelle Goldberg compares this moment to the Red Scare of the 40s and 50s saying, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Khalil’s arrest proves popular, but that won’t make it any less shameful or alarming. The nearly 13 million green card holders in the United States — not to mention foreign students and professors — have been put on notice that they need to watch what they say.” David French took a cynical outlook, saying, “They’re self-righteously wrapping themselves in the flag of combating antisemitism. At the same time, this is a movement that, if you're the right kind of antisemitism, you can get jobs and you can get favors."
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Today, in a speech at the Justice Department, Trump said, "I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they are really corrupt and they are illegal. What they do is illegal." and "These newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative. And it has to stop. It has to be illegal ... it just cannot be legal." Marco Rubio announced that South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is persona non grata for criticizing Trump.
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Trump and his cronies will continue to attack the First Amendment to stoke fear and snuff out dissent with the hopes that no one will stand in their way.
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-Laura Dronen, Democratic-NPL Communications and Digital Director
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North Dakota went big for Trump. Now many farmers say they face an uncertain future
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Starting this week, American farmers like Sherlock are getting hit with tariffs on food they directly sell to China, including soybeans, corn and wheat — as well as pork, chicken and beef. Those levies are in retaliation for tariffs President Trump put on Chinese goods coming to the United States.
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In farm-dependent states like North Dakota, all of this has renewed concerns about a trade war.
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Sherlock says that up until a few days ago, farmers had still hoped President Trump was using tariffs to negotiate. But now it feels chaotic. One minute they're on, then off, then one thing is exempted. Then there's a post on President Trump's Truth Social platform that American farmers should get ready to supply America, ending with "have fun."
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"That really struck a lot of farmers, it was the wrong note," Sherlock says. "It has a lot of them questioning, is there a plan?"
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Trump calls for imprisoning his opponents in bellicose speech at Justice Department
It was, even by Trump’s standards, a stunning show of disregard for decades of tradition observed by his predecessors, who worried about politicizing or appearing to exert too much control over the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency. Trump, instead, called himself the “chief law enforcement officer in our country” and accused the DOJ’s prior leadership of doing “everything within their power to prevent” him from becoming the president.
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Why CEOs are calm about tariffs in public — but 'very discouraged' in private
80% of those CEOs say "that they find themselves apologizing to our international partners for Trump's capriciousness," Sonnenfeld told NPR's Morning Edition on Thursday.
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And, he added, "roughly 70% said the Trump administration is going to be bad for the economy."
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'This should scare you': Trump attacks political enemies in DOJ speech
Fired former Department of Justice Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer, NBC News White House Correspondent Vaughn Hillyard, former top official at the Department of Justice Andrew Weissmann, and Professor at Columbia University Basil Smikle join Nicolle Wallace to discuss President Donald Trump’s speech at the Department of Justice as his administration breaks every norm they can find – including attacking the press and detaining protesters.
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Trump and Musk Are Getting Their Butts Royally Spanked in the Courts
Let’s start with the sum and substance of the judges’ orders. Some 25,000 federal employees will be back at work Monday. One judge’s order covers the employees at the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs. The other covers those at Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the General Services Administration, the Small Business Administration, and USAID.
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Democrats target Republican districts with town hall campaign against Trump cuts
The town halls will be hosted by local and national Democratic politicians, including former vice presidential candidate Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, the DNC spokesperson said.
The initial round will target competitive district seats currently held by Republicans Juan Ciscomani in Arizona, Gabe Evans in Colorado, Anna Paulina Luna in Florida, Zach Nunn in Iowa, John James in Michigan, Ann Wagner in Missouri, Don Bacon in Nebraska and Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania.
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Committees
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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.
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Senate Standing Committee Members
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Monday through Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Desiree Van Oosting (R-36)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Desiree Van Oosting (R-36)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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House Standing Committee Members
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Gretchen Dobervich (D-11)
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Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R-25)
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Meets Monday through Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R-25)
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Patrick R. Hatlestad (R-1)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Mike Motschenbacher (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Gretchen Dobervich (D-11)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Lisa Finley-DeVille (D-4A)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Lawrence R. Klemin (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Patrick R. Hatlestad (R-1)
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Lawrence R. Klemin (R-47)
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Mike Motschenbacher (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Lisa Finley-DeVille (D-4A)
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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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