North Dakota Dems hope to turn heads — and a few seats — in 2024

Published by The Forum | January 30, 2024

Katrina Christiansen, candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to potential voters in Minot on January 27, 2024.

BISMARCK — Leaders of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party say they’re working to give voters options in November.

Party Chair Adam Goldwyn said part of building a stronger state party is recruiting candidates to contest races in every district possible.

“It’s definitely an uphill climb to get a candidate in every seat,” Goldwyn said. “But we’re absolutely committed to giving voters a choice. I mean, that’s really what it’s about, even in places where Republicans regularly win 80% to 85%, that’s still thousands, or hundreds, of Democrats who should have a voice.”

Democrats hold 12 of 94 seats in the state House and four of 47 seats in the Senate. The minority party hasn’t won a statewide office since former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp was elected in 2012.

This election cycle, Democrats plan to combine local resources and volunteers into more regional operations to expand the party’s footprint, Goldwyn said.

Goldwyn hinted the party plans to announce a candidate for governor that residents should be “excited” about. The candidate would take on Republican Kelly Armstrong in the race.

Katrina Christiansen, a Democrat who is challenging Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer, said her campaign is part of rebuilding the Dem-NPL party.

“In 100 days, we’ve doubled what I raised last cycle,” said Christiansen, who failed to unseat Sen. John Hoeven in the 2022 election.

Christiansen, who describes herself as a mother of three with a mortgage, has worked as an agricultural engineer and is an associate professor at the University of Jamestown. She said she believes direct interaction with voters is how minds can be changed.

“North Dakota is a really relational state,” she said. “Talking to people in our grocery stores and gas stations, wherever else, it makes a big difference and I am not going to shy away from doing that hard work.”

She also thinks listening honestly to voters at town halls and in every interaction goes a long way toward people believing they are heard and rebuilding the party’s brand.

Christiansen and Democratic U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer attended a listening lunch on Jan. 27 with local laborers and other community members in Minot, something she said is key to winning back an important block of votes that in recent elections have gone to Republicans.

“They feel left out, they feel left behind,” she said. “They gave us some really challenging questions while I was there and it was intense, but I think we had a really good dialog.”

She also said she doesn’t want to dismiss any fear some people might be having about supporting the Dem-NPL party during a time when politics has become divisive and reprisals are not uncommon.

“In the country that I want my kids to grow up in, I don’t want them to be fearful of that,” she said. “We are a free country.”

Goldwyn pointed to recent scandals involving a lack of “integrity” concerning current and former Republican lawmakers, including former Sen. Ray Holmberg who was indicted on federal child sex tourism charges.

“I think our record is clear,” Goldwyn said. “We’re the party of integrity, the party that works for workers and regular people, so I’m very optimistic.”

He also believes that national Democratic initiatives, like student loan relief, climate legislation, combined with economic trends should give the party a good tailwind into the 2024 election.

Goldwyn said some candidates running for office under the Dem-NPL banner this year are sure to turn some heads, like 23-year-old Heather Tyulyandin who is running for the party endorsement in West Fargo-area District 16.

Tyulyandin, who is finishing her master’s degree in higher education administration at North Dakota State University, said she took an interest in bills last year related to funding school lunches and opposed anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion legislation.

“There have been some not so great things that have happened in the Legislature recently that really felt heavy on my heart,” she said. “And it was things that I felt like I needed to stand up because we can’t always wait for other people to do it, somebody has to step up and be willing to take the plunge.”

She testified as Heather Gades during the 2023 session about the difficulty of paying for school lunch. She is getting married this year and running under what will be her married name, Tyulyandin.

She said she believes there are a lot of members of Generation Z, like her, who want the world to be a place where people can just exist as themselves and live whatever life they want to live.

“Seeing how there is this faction, almost, of the GOP that is taking a hard right turn into religious fundamentalism is really scary for a lot of people,” Tyulyandin said.

During the 2022 election, Democrats contested 34 of 77 legislative races, or less than half.

Goldwyn said big institutional changes are made one step at a time and the 2024 election, he hopes, could be a step in the right direction.

“I think the way we build back is one election at a time, one candidate at a time,” Goldwyn said. “I think North Dakotans really share our values more than Republican values and we’re just gonna get out and tell the neighbors about that. That’s our strategy.”

This story was originally published by Michael Achterling on NorthDakotaMonitor.com