MINOT — Minot’s District 3 is home to Reps. Jeff Hoverson and Lori VanWinkle, two of the most controversial members of the Legislature, but maybe not for much longer.

District 3, like all odd-numbered districts in our state, is on the ballot this election cycle, and the House incumbents there

have just drawn two serious challengers.

Tim Mihalick and Blaine DesLauriers, each with a background in banking, have announced campaigns for those House seats. Mihalick is a senior vice president at First Western Bank & Trust and serves on the State Board of Higher Education. DesLauriers is vice chair of the board and senior executive vice president at First International Bank & Trust.

The entry into this race has delighted a lot of traditionally conservative Republicans in North Dakota

Hoverson, who has worked as a Lutheran pastor, has frequently made headlines with his bizarre antics. He was

banned from the Minot International Airport

after he accused a security agent of trying to touch his genitals. He also

objected

to a Hindu religious leader participating in the Legislature’s schedule of multi-denominational invocation leaders and, on his local radio show, seemed to suggest that Muslim cultures that force women to wear burkas

have it right.

Hoeverson has also backed legislation to mandate prayer and the display of the Ten Commandments in schools, and to encourage the end of Supreme Court precedent prohibiting bans on same sex marriage.

VanWinkle, for her part, went on a rant last year in which she suggested that women struggling with infertility have been cursed by God

(she later claimed her comments, which were documented in a floor speech, were taken out of context)

before taking

a weeklong ski vacation

during the busiest portion of the legislative session (she continued to collect her daily legislative pay while absent). When asked by a constituent why she doesn’t attend regular public forums in Minot during the legislative session,

she said she wasn’t willing to “sacrifice” any more of her personal time.

The incumbents haven’t officially announced their reelection bids, but it’s my practice to treat all incumbents as though they’re running again until we learn otherwise.

In many ways, VanWinkle and Hoverson are emblematic of the ascendant populist, MAGA-aligned faction of the North Dakota Republican Party. They are on the extreme fringe of conservative politics, and openly detest their traditionally conservative leaders. Now they’ve got challengers who are respected members of Minot’s business community, and will no doubt run well-organized and well-funded campaigns.

If the 2026 election is a turning point in the

internecine conflict among North Dakota Republicans

— the battle to see if our state will be governed by traditional conservatives or culture war populists — this primary race in District 3 could well be the hinge on which it turns.

In the 2024 cycle, there was an effort, largely organized by then-Rep. Brandon Prichard, to push far-right challengers against more moderate incumbent Republicans.

It was largely unsuccessful.

Most of the candidates Prichard backed lost, including Prichard himself, who was

defeated in the June primary

by current Rep. Mike Berg, a candidate with a political profile not all that unlike that of Mihalick and DesLauriers.

But these struggles among Republicans are hardly unique to North Dakota, and the populist MAGA faction has done better elsewhere. In South Dakota, for instance, in the 2024 primary,

more than a dozen incumbent Republicans were swept out of office.

Can North Dakota’s normie Republicans avoid that fate? They’ll get another test in 2026, but recruiting strong challengers like Mihalick and DesLauriers is a good sign for them.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – A harrowing scene at Sheridan Lake ended without serious injury Tuesday after a man, a woman and their dog fell through thin ice near the swimming beach, authorities said.

Keep pets on a leash and never attempt a risky rescue if someone falls through the ice, officials said. Call 911 immediately.

The South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks agency advises that ice three inches or less is unsafe. Four inches is generally considered the minimum for walking, ice fishing or skating.

Lt. Casey Kenrick of the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office said the incident is a reminder to take extra precautions this winter.

“Usually at this time the ice is significantly thick on the lakes around the area, well, some aren’t even frozen all the way at this point. The temperatures have been up and down so much that the ice isn’t solid even though it may look like it is, so make sure you know the ice depth that you’re getting onto,” Kenrick said.

Kenrick said those precautions could mean the difference between a close call and a tragedy.

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