2024 North Dakota Legislative Leadership Update

Earlier this week, the North Dakota House and Senate GOP majority caucuses elected their leadership for the 2025 legislative session.

Among those selected was each of the Majority Leaders, Assistant Majority Leaders, and Caucus Chairs along with the Speaker of the House. The Minority Party will have leadership elections the week of December 3rd during the Organizational Session. While most positions remained the same, many of those currently in leadership faced a challenge for their roles.

House Majority Leader
House Majority Leader Mike Lefor was re-elected to a second term as leader. He defeated Representative Ben Koppelman (R-West Fargo) who ran on a platform of taking a stronger position on property tax reform and on expanding Second Amendment rights. Leader Lefor represents a large portion of the city of Dickinson and has previously served as the Chair of the Industry, Business, and Labor Committee in the House of Representatives.

House Assistant Majority Leader
Representative Glenn Bosch remains as the House Assistant Majority Leader, a position he has served in since 2022. Representative Bosch represents a portion of the city of Bismarck and also chairs the legislative Information Technology committee. Representative Vicky Steiner (R-Dickinson) also considered running for the position, but following other race results decided to not seek the office.

House Majority Caucus Chair

The House Republican Caucus Leader is an open seat, following the decision of Representative Austin Schauer (R-West Fargo) to not run for reelection as the Caucus Leader. The caucus leader is responsible for fundraising, arranging caucus meetings, and in many capacities serving as the whip to the House Majority Leader. This year saw a three-way race between Representative Jared Hagert (R-Emerado), Representative SuAnn Olson (R-Baldwin), and Representative Jeremy Olson (R-Arnegard). Representative Hagert represents the agricultural communities south of Grand Forks in the Eastern side of the state, Representative SuAnn Olson represents rural communities to the east of Bismarck, and Representative Jeremy Olson represents Mckenzie County, Watford City, and much of the Bakken oil field. When there are more than two candidates running for a single position in the House Republican Caucus voting is held in rounds. After the first round the lowest vote getter is disqualified, and the remaining candidates run until a candidate receives votes and support from a majority of the caucus. After two rounds of voting Representative Jeremy Olson was elected to the position of House Majority Caucus leader. This will be his first term serving in the position.

House Speaker

In North Dakota, the Speaker of the House serves largely in an administrative role overseeing the assignment of legislation to committees and overseeing the daily business of the House of Representatives chamber. As per North Dakota tradition, members serve a single term as the Speaker of the House, and it is often a position of honor for senior members of the legislature. With this open seat, two members challenged each other for the position: Representative Robin Weisz (R-Hurdsfield) and Representative Bill Tveit (R-Hazen). Representative Tveit garnered support of the more staunch conservative wing of the Republican party, while Representative Weisz received the bulk of his support from the broader Republican coalition. In the end, Representative Weisz won the Speaker’s race, and will serve from the dais for the 2025 legislative session

Senate Majority Leader

North Dakota Senate Republican Caucus unanimously reelected David Hogue as Majority Leader. Senator Hogue was first elected majority leader for the 2023 legislative session and is an attorney who represents a portion of Minot.

Senate Assistant Majority Leader

Senator Jerry Klein (R-Fessenden) was re-elected as Assistant Senate Majority Leader. Senator Klein represents agricultural communities to the northeast of Bismarck and has previously served as the Chair of the Industry and Business committee.

Senate Majority Caucus Chair
Senate Caucus Chair Kristin Roers was unopposed in her reelection as Senate Majority Caucus Leader. This well be her second term as Seante Majority Caucus Chair. Senator Roers represents south central Fargo.