The 2024 North Dakota Senate election will take place on November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections.[1] Senators serve four-year terms. Elections are staggered such that half the senate districts have elections every two years (even-numbered seats are up on presidential election years.)
In the 2022 North Dakota elections, a ballot measure created term limits of eight years in the North Dakota Senate, which was put into effect starting January 2023.[2] However, no candidate up for election will be affected by the term limits.[3]
In January of 2024, Federal District Court Judge Peter Welte required North Dakota to substantially alter Legislative District 9 in response to a lawsuit by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe. The tribes alleged that the House of Representatives districts established by the North Dakota legislature violated the voting rights act by preventing members of the Spirit Lake Tribe from electing a candidate of their choice to the legislature. The court-ordered new District 9, which the Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake tribes had proposed, includes both the Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake reservations.
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Partisan Background
In the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump won the most votes in 41 of North Dakota's State Senate districts and Democrat Joe Biden won 6. Out of the 24 districts with elections in 2024, Donald Trump won the most votes in 20 districts and Joe Biden won the most votes in 4. There are 2 Biden-won districts which Republicans represented going into the 2024 North Dakota Senate election: District 9 ( Biden + 21%) and Fargo-based District 46 ( Biden + 0.2%).