GRAND FORKS — North Dakota Republican Party Chairwoman Sandi Sanford said the number of candidates and the quality of candidates running for North Dakota’s U.S. House seat is good for the state, although she believes the trend of bypassing the Republican endorsement isn’t good for the party.

“This is incredibly exciting for North Dakotans,” Sanford said. “I love the fact that people are stepping forward and I’m grateful to have so many candidates for the state of North Dakota to choose from.”

At present, three Republican candidates are hoping to be the party’s November candidate for the state’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. They include

Rick Becker

, of Bismarck;

Tom Campbell

, of Grafton; and

Julie Fedorchak

, of Bismarck. Campbell and Fedorchak have said that they will try to get the party’s endorsement, but all three will go to the June 11 primary regardless.

According to NDGOP’s rules, “any person who has sought the endorsement of another political party or ran as an independent for statewide office in the past six years shall be prohibited from seeking the endorsement of the North Dakota Republican Party’s state convention.”

That rule means that only Fedorchak and Campbell are eligible for the Republican endorsement, since Becker ran as an independent candidate against Sen. John Hoeven in 2022.

Overall, the trend of bypassing the endorsement process is bad for the party, according to Sanford.

“We need to give candidates a reason to seek the endorsement,” Sanford said. “For whatever reason, there’s been a shift in the party. What we’re experiencing in the state of North Dakota is not unique. … What is happening in North Dakota is happening across the nation.”

Candidates receiving party endorsement and support have made the NDGOP into the dominant force it is in North Dakota politics, Sanford said

“This is what built a supermajority in the last 12 years,” she said. “My concern is the fact that we have a state committee that’s somewhat split, and the party wants to have good candidates, and we want to keep a supermajority.”

Sanford continued, “I think the June primary is going to be really telling for us to whether the GOP endorsement matters.”

Sanford, who recently returned from a national Republican Party meeting, said the whole party, not just in North Dakota, needs to figure out its identity.

“We need to be clear on what we stand for, what our core values are. We also need to understand that there are many people in the big Republican tent,” Sanford said. “I think we’re forgetting that as Republicans, we have different factions in the state that believe their faction is the only way and that is just not true.”

Recent history in North Dakota has shown that candidates who don’t have the party’s endorsement can still win. Now-U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer didn’t get the party’s endorsement when he won the U.S. House primary in 2012, and Gov. Doug Burgum didn’t have the party’s endorsement when he won the primary for governor in 2016.

While the candidates may not abide by the party’s decision, in the eyes of Sanford, that decision does show how serious they are about running for office.

“There are seriously good candidates that are really having to resort to ‘you know what, I’m taking it to the primary regardless,’ and that’s sending multiple messages,” Sanford said. “It’s telling people that the GOP is just tradition, that the GOP is really nothing at all. But it is also telling us that these are serious candidates and they are not going to back down regardless of the convention or lack of endorsement.”

Voigt covers city government in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.