North Dakota Democrats say election night results favoring Republicans is not a surprising outcome - but the party did sweep one district: 44, in North Fargo.
Josh Boschee was re-elected to his seat in the North Dakota House over opponent Gail Nelson, and his "teammates" unseated two Republican incumbents. Merrill Piepkorn narrowly defeated incumbent Senator Tim Flakoll, and Karla Rose Hanson defeated incumbent Representative Blair Thoreson. Both had served the district since 1998.
Boschee says it took a lot of knocking on doors and talking to neighbors, but they were able to get it done. He says he's looking forward to representing District 44 - even if it means some members of their party won't be returning with them.
"We'll sit down as our team and pull together our neighbors again, and review the priorities they've reached out to us on and figure out, how can we make sure we bring that back to Bismarck. It's clear that we're not going to come back with more Democrats than we left last session with, so we'll have to be strategic and work with our Republican counterparts on that. But, we are looking forward to bringing North Fargo to Bismarck."
Several Democrats lost their re-election bids last night - including party chairwoman Kylie Oversen, and Senate Minority Leader Mac Schneider.