Delegate Process

About 1,800 people at the North Dakota Republican State Convention will likely decide who all of the statewide elected officials are for the entire state. The state convention will be held in Bismarck April 1-2, 2022. Delegates attending will vote to determine which candidates the party will be endorsing for Attorney General, Secretary of State, US Congress, US Senate, Tax Commissioner, Agriculture Commissioner, and Public Service Commissioner.

If you attend as a delegate, you will decide who the Republican party will support in these critically important statewide races! As a delegate, you will also help determine the rules and platform of the party. Our platform is our statement of principles that is intended to guide our party’s direction. In these difficult times, we need strong conservatives to help steer our party towards – not away – from fundamental principles of freedom and prosperity.

Delegates are simply people elected from each of the 47 legislative districts who choose to serve as representatives of their district at the state convention. Delegates are usually elected at separate district conventions for each of the 47 districts between January 1st and March 1st.

The time / date / location of these district conventions are set by the local Republican district chairman. Each district is allotted a certain number of delegate slots. For instance, if a district is allotted 50 slots, then it can elect up to 50 delegates and 50 alternate delegates to send to the state convention.

Visit the ND Secretary of State website HERE and enter your address information.

Introduce yourself and let them know that you'd like to be a Delegate to the State Convention and participate in the process of selecting the Party's 2022 endorsed candidates. Contact information is here: https://ndgop.org/state-committee/.

It is critically important that you communicate with your Chair. Ask your Chairman about the details of the district convention - time, date, location and any participation requirements (which should reflect what we have written here).
Over time, it would be ideal (though not required) to build a relationship with your Chairman. This is not just about getting conservative patriot Republicans elected — it’s about having the political organization in place behind them to put forth conservative policies.

All District Chairs must call a District Convention sometime between January 1st-March 1st of 2022. Most meetings are noticed in the local county paper of record. Some may be listed on the state party website here: https://ndgop.org/events/. But if the information is not available, be sure to ask your Chairman.

It is also best practice to contact your District Chair and express interest in being a delegate. At the meeting, there will be a point in time in which the Chairman will ask for names of those interested in being elected as delegates. You can nominate yourself, or have a friend do it (and you can nominate others as well). You will not need to give a speech or “campaign” for the position.
The process should work this way – If a district has, for example, 50 delegate slots, and only 40 people are interested in attending as delegates, then all 40 will likely be elected to attend by a voice vote. If 80 people are interested, then there must be an election of delegates at the district convention. The top 50 voter-getters amongst the 80 are elected as delegates, and the remaining 30 people would be placed into the alternate positions in the order of the votes they received. The alternate delegates only have voting power if a delegate cannot attend for any reason, in which case alternates are “moved up” into a voting delegate position.


NOTE: If you’re unable to attend your district convention, you may still be able to be a delegate. However, you must contact your Chairman and express your interest so that he or she can place your name into nomination on your behalf. Also, if the date of your district convention has already passed, you can possibly still be a delegate as well. Many districts do not fill all of their delegate slots, which means there are open spots available even after the district convention.

Complete your State Delegate Registration Form obtained from your District Chair. Fill it out, make a copy for your records, and return with payment to your District Chair immediately. This delegate registration form will require a delegate fee payment. The amount of these fees have not been disclosed by the state party, but in past years, they were $90, or $45 for ages 18-30. These must be paid by the registration deadline, typically mid-March.

Your registration as a Delegate is valid and complete once the District Chair approves you at which point you are officially a Certified Delegate and able to be seated with full voting powers on the floor of the State Convention.