State reference

How does government work in North Dakota?

North Dakota’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

141

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Counties

Local

Seat in the US House

Clerk of the House

Foundation: Constitution of North Dakota source
In effect since: 1889 source

What may surprise you here

Legislators serve four-year terms in both chambers, and the rules call for about half of each chamber to be elected every two years. source
The Supreme Court has no intermediate appeals court beneath it in the constitution, and its justices are elected to ten-year terms, with one seat up every two years. source

Legislature

Name: Legislative Assembly source
Senate: seats: 47 source
Senate: term in years: 4 source
House of Representatives: seats: 94 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 4 source
Term limits: 8 years in each chamber source

Structure set by: N.D. Const. art. IV, sec. 1.

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: Two terms source
Next regular election: 2028 source
Lieutenant governor: joint ticket source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: elected source
Secretary of state’s term in years: 4 source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Court of Appeals source
Main trial court: District Court source
How high-court judges reach the bench: mixed: justices and judges are elected; the governor fills vacancies from a judicial nominating committee list source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 53 source
Cities and towns: North Dakota has 356 municipal governments (all cities) and 1,305 township governments, as of the 2022 Census of Governments. source
Schools: North Dakota has 173 independent school districts, as of the 2022 Census of Governments. source

Elections

Chief election official: Secretary of State source
Who runs elections locally: County auditors source
Primary type: open source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: yes source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Kelly Armstrong Republican, in office since December 15, 2024. source

US senators for North Dakota
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Kevin Cramer	Republican	Class 1	January 3, 2019	January 3, 2031
John Hoeven	Republican	Class 3	January 5, 2011	January 3, 2029

Members of the House for North Dakota
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
At large	Julie Fedorchak	Republican	January 3, 2025

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 1