NDGOP Convention Tops 1,600 Registered Delegates, Democrats Seated 612

If the state party conventions are a measure of enthusiasm of political activists in the state, Republicans seem to have a major advantage.

I’m attending the NDGOP state convention in Grand Forks today, and a party official confirmed to me that they now have over 1,600 delegates registered.

To put that in context, the North Dakota Democrats topped out at 612 seated delegates for their hotly contested House endorsement race at their state convention (also in Grand Forks) last month. The NDGOP, meanwhile, had about 1,700 delegates at their state convention in 2016.

Of course, 2016 was a presidential election year, which usually draws larger delegate counts. Meaning that 1,600 delegates in a midterm election year is a big, big number.

We’ll see how many delegates the party actually seats tomorrow – that’s the count of the delegates who actually showed up to participate – but as things look now the Republicans seem to have a very enthusiastic, very engaged base.