Port: The NDGOP’s new leaders promote attacks on elected Republicans

MINOT, N.D. — Since she was elected chair of the North Dakota Republican Party,

a vote that was as narrow as it was controversial,

Sandi Sanford, an advocate of book bans who

considers the “culture warrior” appellation to be a compliment,

has been paying lip service to the concept of unity.

She’s claimed her platform was rooted, at least in part, in

“uniting the party,”

and she has made overtures in that direction. Shortly after her election, the party sent out an email extolling the work of the party leaders who were ousted by Sanford and her fellow culture war activists, a clear attempt at trying to paper over sharp divides among the state’s Republicans.

But Sanford’s efforts have come off as perfunctory — her overtures toward unity desultory — to the faction of the party that opposed her election as chair.

“She won by one vote,” one NDGOP leader who was defeated in the recent party election told me, “but she’s carrying on as if she and her supporters have a mandate to define Republicanism for everyone else.”

“I was brutalized and insulted by Sanford’s supporters on social media,” another former executive committee member told me, “so pardon me if I’m not appeased by some email touting my service to the party.”

I’ve been attempting to schedule an interview with Sanford, and while she’s claimed to be amenable, we haven’t yet been able to make it happen.

The party has already

refunded some big-dollar contributions

to disillusioned donors after Sanford’s election, and even as Sanford and her supporters sing a song of togetherness, they seem to see

other Republicans, and not Democrats,

as their primary opponents.

A case in point is a recent analysis of votes in the state House of Representatives during the 2023 session that (try not to laugh) sought to paint a majority of House members as a bunch of liberals and moderates.

The analysis was

stupid and facile,

measuring only how often Republicans and Democrats in the House chamber voted together without any consideration for the efficacy of the bills being voted on.

As if a Republican and a Democrat voting together on a bill were inherently bad, with no need to consider what they were voting on.

But let’s be honest with ourselves. The intent wasn’t a useful measure of legislative performance but propaganda in service of the idea, which Sanford and her ilk campaigned on, that many elected Republicans in our state might as well be Democrats.

A ridiculous notion. But then, we live in ridiculous times.

I bring up that analysis because it

was promoted by a Minnesota-based group

that calls itself the Center of the American Experiment. Per her LinkedIn profile, the executive director of the North Dakota chapter of this group is Jennifer Benson, a former member of the Fargo School Board and

proponent of student litter box conspiracy theories

who was elected, alongside Sanford, as vice chair of the NDGOP.

Benson also promoted on Twitter this trumped-up analysis attacking the voting record of most of the Republican majority in the state House.

Sanford claims she wants unity among Republicans.

Meanwhile, many elected Republicans have more to fear from attacks launched by members of their own party’s leadership than they do Democrats.

For those hoping to see continued victories for Republicans at North Dakota’s ballot box, this situation is not a recipe for success.