North Dakota Republican Party elects Sandi Sanford as new chair

BISMARCK — Former North Dakota second lady Sandi Sanford has been elected to lead the state Republican Party.

Sanford, wife of former Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford, defeated incumbent party Chairman Perrie Schafer on Friday in Fargo, 29 votes to 28.

Sanford ran on a platform of “uniting the party and supporting the values espoused in the party’s platform,” the GOP said in a statement.

“I have talked to the district chairs on several occasions,” Sanford said. “They have been open about the improvements they’d like to see. I look forward to supporting these efforts by offering the resources, tools and training needed to continue to win Republican offices.”

Sanford is a small business owner and farm operator, and has worked in the health care industry for the past 30 years. She has been active in state and federal politics for 26 years, lobbying Congress on behalf of the American Association of Respiratory Care and Medicare Reform Act, assisting in implementing smoking cessation programs, and co-founding the Watford City Human Trafficking Task Force.

Schafer did not immediately respond to a Tribune request for comment. He had been party chair the past two years.

Republicans dominate North Dakota politics. The party controls the state Senate 43-4 and the House of Representatives 82-12, and holds every statewide elected office and congressional seat.

But political observers have seen a fracture between ultraconservative and establishment Republicans in the state. It was evident in the censures of several GOP state lawmakers at district reorganization meetings throughout North Dakota in 2021. Some political observers linked the censures to an ultraconservative faction of the party.

Several North Dakota GOP leaders walked out of a party State Committee meeting in December 2021 in protest of Schafer having appointed eight temporary district chairs under a new law for reorganizing political parties in the wake of the Legislature’s redistricting following the 2020 census.

The division between moderate and ultraconservative Republicans also was evident in the state Republican convention in 2022. Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Hoeven narrowly beat Rick Becker, then a state lawmaker and leader of the libertarian-leaning Bastiat Caucus, for the party endorsement.

Brent Sanford resigned in January after six years as lieutenant governor under Gov. Doug Burgum, citing a desire to return to the private sector. The former mayor of Watford City in April was announced as project manager of Bakken Global Recruitment of Oilfield Workers, or GROW, a new initiative to bring workers to the oil patch through immigration, focusing initially on Ukrainians.

The Sanford family lives in Bismarck.