ND governor targets fellow Republicans to mixed results

 North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s expensive effort to influence the GOP primary and reshape the Legislature with more people who support his spending and policy goals was a mixed bag. On of main political foes was ousted, but some others won. Burgum is a wealthy former Microsoft executive who gave more than $1.2 million ahead of Tuesday’s primary to a political action committee that spent against certain lawmakers, including some from the North Dakota GOP’S ultraconservative wing. The second-term governor also gave more than $3 million to the PAC in 2020 with similarly mixed results.

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The turnout for Tuesday’s election was the lowest for a statewide primary since 2014. A total of 105,436 ballots were cast.
That’s 55,000 fewer votes than two years ago. In 2014 the turnout rate was just over 17%. By comparison the General Election in 2020 saw over 364,000 North Dakotans cast ballots for a turnout rate of over 62%.
In Grand Forks County 7,035 ballots were counted this week – less than half the June 2020 total.