BISMARCK, N.D. (NorthDakotaMoniter) – A North Dakota Senate resolution to make changes to the term limits rules in the state constitution passed by a single vote Monday.
If Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008 is approved by the House, term limits could be back for a statewide vote in 2026, though lawmakers have indicated they expect the resolution to be challenged in court.
While the Legislature can usually pass resolutions to put changes to the constitution to a statewide vote, term limits appear to be an exception.
North Dakota voters imposed term limits on state legislators by passing a citizen-initiated ballot measure in 2022. That ballot measure also said the only way to undo the term limits in the constitution would be through another citizen-initiated measure, not through the Legislature.
The measure approved by voters limits lawmakers to serving up to eight years in the House and up to eight years in the Senate.
The resolution adopted by the Senate would limit lawmakers to four complete four-year terms in the Legislature. The resolution also says a partial term does not count toward a lawmaker’s term limit.
Sen. Kristin Roers, R-Fargo, said the State and Local Government Committee felt that was a “structural update” in keeping with what voters passed.
“Those of us who live this life every day understand there are pros and cons to term limits in a way that people who have not lived it can’t understand,” Roers said.
Rep. Jared Hendrix, R-Fargo, was a backer of the term limits measure before being elected to Legislature last year. In a Facebook post after Monday’s vote, Hendrix said it seems obvious that the Legislature’s attempts to change terms is to set up a legal challenge of the term limits provisions that are now part of the constitution.
In a hearing last month and again Monday in the Senate chamber, several lawmakers expressed their distaste for term limits and what they said are out-of-state interests that got the measure passed.
Sen. Dick Dever, R-Bismarck, was among those critical of the term limits measure on Monday, though he said that he would likely be ready to retire from the Legislature before he was termed out.
He said he would prefer that legislators get behind a citizen-initiated measure to repeal term limits.
Sen. Jeff Magrum, R-Hazelton, said the Legislature should respect the vote of the people in 2022.
“I feel real bad that we’re even considering this,” he said.
The resolution advances to the House for consideration.
Another term limits resolution, Senate Concurrent Resolution 4028, failed on the Senate floor. It would have added term limits for statewide office holders.
The House also voted down a term limits resolution on Monday. House Concurrent Resolution 3034 proposed a statewide vote on term limits of 12 years in office for lawmakers and most statewide elected officials. Under that resolution, officials could have served up to another 12 years if they left office for four years.
Meanwhile, House Bill 1300, which seeks to retroactively change the starting point for calculating term limits, was given a do-pass recommendation in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It had been previously passed by the House. That bill aims to clear up confusion on term limits for lawmakers elected in 2020 and reelected in 2024.
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