Rep. Jared Hendrix addresses delegates March 29, 2026, during the Republican Party state convention in Minot. (Photo by Amy Dalrymple/North Dakota Monitor)
MINOT, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – Grassroots Republican delegates view the party’s decision this weekend to remove the Republican brand from absent candidates as the start of a multi-year effort to take control of who represents their organization to North Dakota voters.
The first step is to work on electing the candidates that have been endorsed by the Republican Party convention process, one organizer involved in the effort said on Monday. But the search for more permanent change to the state’s primary system is only just beginning, said Wendi Baggaley, a delegate from District 5.
Baggaley, a registered parliamentarian who is helping lead the effort to recruit volunteers to move forward with that process, said she’s had a steady stream of volunteers since a survey circulated at the convention.
“This is a process that I envision will take at least two years, if not more,” Baggaley said. “We didn’t get here overnight. We can’t fix it overnight.”
Republican and Democratic nominees on the general election ballot are determined through an open primary in June. The system is enshrined in state law and any changes would have to go through the legislative process.
Resolutions passed by either major party are not legally binding, according to a Monday statement from the Secretary of State’s Office. The office cited North Dakota Century Code 16.1-11, which includes a template for a candidate affidavit that gets submitted along with petition signatures. The template allows the candidate to fill in their political affiliation.
One lawmaker, Sen. Chuck Walen, R-New Town, vowed to sponsor legislation ensuring a party-endorsed candidate is automatically placed on the general election ballot. Multiple speakers at the convention urged delegates to help push the legislation.
Baggaley, who was involved in a similar political fight in the Utah Republican Party before moving to North Dakota in 2018, said the convention endorsement process is one of the few tools left to fight the influence of big money in politics that can sway a primary.
“If you join, say, the Audubon Society, you don’t expect somebody from a completely opposite viewpoint or contrary to your view, to suddenly be in charge of carrying your brand,” Baggaley said. “That’s kind of ridiculous, and yet, that’s what the primary system has allowed over the years in this state.”
Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, said the effort is causing unnecessary “divisiveness.” He said the party’s internal conflict is partly a natural byproduct of electoral success.
“We hold a monopoly on all the statewide elected offices. We hold a three-fourths majority in both chambers,” Hogue said. “When there isn’t an opposition party, you start looking inward. And that’s what’s been happening.”
Participants in the convention were highly critical as all statewide incumbents skipped the endorsing convention.
The motion approved by delegates, proposed by District 2 Chair Jerol Gohrick, was to “Remove the Republican brand from the candidates who did not participate in the convention.” It was passed 318-312 on Saturday. Delegates opposed reconsidering the action on a 311-297 vote on Sunday.
Baggaley said the motion is a symbolic gesture and does not immediately remove anyone, such as Gov. Kelly Armstrong or Rep. Julie Fedorchak, from membership in the party. But questions remain about what the immediate effect might be.
“It just says candidates, so my question is whether that’s for statewide or for legislative?” asked Sen. Claire Cory, R-Grand Forks, in an interview after Saturday’s vote.
Baggaley doesn’t think it should affect any legislative candidates endorsed at their district conventions who were not able to make it to the state convention.
“For this particular election season, it’s mostly regarding those people that did not even choose to engage with the party, but still want to have the party label,” Baggaley said.
One legislative candidate who was absent from the convention was former Bismarck lawmaker Rick Becker, who received the NDGOP District 7 endorsement for House. Becker said he had a vacation planned a year earlier to go fishing and cave kayaking in Belize with his grandson the same weekend.
Becker said he believes the motion to remove the Republican brand from candidates not in attendance wouldn’t apply to candidates endorsed at the district level.
“What I think the intention was that if you are boycotting the Republican Party because you don’t like who’s in charge, then you no longer deserve to hold that identification as being a Republican,” Becker said. “I understand and I agree with the sentiment of the motion.”
He added he doesn’t think the motion will have any impact unless state law is changed through legislation. But he does see a need for the law governing the nomination process to be changed because Becker questions whether a state government should be involved in the brand of a private organization like the NDGOP.
“I have been a proponent for doing something about this situation,” he said. “The fact that we don’t have voter registration, we do have conventions and we do have a very easy way of bypassing the conventions to go to the primary, it just doesn’t make sense. It’s a total mess.”
Becker was not eligible to seek the party’s endorsement for U.S. House in 2024 and gained ballot access that year by collecting signatures. Becker placed second, with 30% of the vote, in the primary. Rep. Julie Fedorchak won the nomination.
Gov. Kelly Armstrong, in an interview on Sunday, cast doubt on the political party’s usefulness in selecting and supporting nominees chosen at the state convention.
“When you decide that this is going to become an ideological purity test instead of a mechanism to help Republicans get elected and win elections, you are going to have a lot of people that ask why?” Armstrong said. “Your vote doesn’t count more than anybody else’s in June or November.”
Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, a delegate at the convention, said the motion supported by populist members was “out of touch” with everyday Republicans.
“They are the RINOs,” Satrom said in a text message on Saturday. “They think they are the party and disrespect the people who built the party and are in touch with the people.”
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