A Fargo woman became the first Muslim elected to the North Dakota Legislature.
Hamida Dakane (D) was elected to the House in District 10 in Fargo. She said she enjoyed her experience in the Legislature.
"It's been good, most of it," Dakane said in an interview. "I think we have done good work for the people of North Dakota."
Dakane said one overriding issue for the session was workforce development. She said her Senate colleague, Kathy Hogan (D), introduced a number of childcare bills, to help with workforce. She said they were originally rejected in the House. But Dakane said Republicans did revive a plan for childcare.
"It's not enough," Dakane said. "Not every North Dakota family will benefit from it. But it's a good place to start."
Dakane said it "opens the door," so lawmakers will be able to do more in the next session.
Dakane said she was disappointed in the Legislature adopting certain social policies that target certain individuals – and she said she will work to make changes.
"Every chance we get, we want to make North Dakota more welcoming," Dakane said. "We're a young state, and we are struggling for workforce, so we cannot have such things in our policy and Century Code, so there will be an effort to change that. But that takes all of us."
