Poll: North Dakotans Think State Is On Right Track, Especially In Oil Country

According to polling from DFM Research, 74 percent of North Dakotans feel the state is heading in the right direction. That’s up a bit from just before the election when  70% said “right direction.”

North Dakotans don’t feel the country is heading in the right direction, though. A majority – 55 percent – said the country is on the “wrong track.” That is also improved from just before the election, though, when 63 percent said the country was on the wrong track.

I suspect the shift has a lot to do with Republicans taking over Congress.

Interestingly, the area showing the strongest support for the idea that the state is heading in the “right direction” are the western ruural areas, where 82 percent gave that answer. The rural western areas of the state are, of course, oil country which have weathered the biggest impacts from the oil boom.

These strong numbers are despite concerns over falling oil prices, and despite the fact that the polling took place amid multiple incidents of pipeline leaks which got significant media attention.

Also interesting is that even 67 percent of self-identified Democrats told pollsters that they feel the state – dominated by a “Republican supermajority” that the state’s Democrat activists like to denigrate – is heading in the right direction.

It’s hard to imagine Democrats in the state getting much political traction at all until these numbers change.

Here’s the full polling memo. It was conducted between January 17th and 26th of this year.