With Candidate Deadline Looming Democrats Still Have A Third Of Legislative Races Unfilled

So far the North Dakota Democrats have left four statewide races without a candidate: Auditor, Treasurer, Public Service Commissioner, and Insurance Commissioner.

They’ve claimed that this lack of statewide candidate recruit is because they’ve been focused on the Legislature, but there too they’ve been struggling. According to a review of campaign filings on the Secretary of State’s website this morning, Democrats still have about a third of the 69 House and Senate races without a candidate.

The deadline for candidates filing is Monday, April 11.

Here are the breakdowns:

In the House races:

• Republicans have candidates for 42 of 46 races (at least two House races will be competitive on the June primary).
• Democrats have just 31 candidates.
• Libertarians have just one candidate.

For Democrats, that means they still have nearly 33 percent of races without a candidate.

It’s about the same picture in the Senate:

• Republicans have a full slate, 23 candidates for 23 races.
• Democrats have 15 candidates.
• There are no Libertarians filed to run for the state Senate.

That means Democrats have nearly 35 percent of the races without a candidate.

Overall, between both chambers, Democrats have 46 candidates for 69 races, leaving exactly a third without a candidate. They’re leaving 23 races without a candidate so far, though I’m sure they’ll add at least a few more by the deadline.

For what it’s worth, in the 2014 cycle Democrats left 15 legislative seats unchallenged. It looks like, despite the supposed special attention the legislative races are supposedly receiving from Democrats this cycle, they’ll be in that ballpark again.

Here’s the full list:

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