North Dakota GOP won’t consider change to endorsement process

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – The state Republican Party says it will not consider a move by a “rogue ad hoc group” to change the endorsement process at the party’s convention this weekend.

In a letter sent to delegates Thursday, state GOP Chairman Perrie Schafer said the attempt by the “Ad Hoc NDGOP 2022 Convention Rules Committee” to change existing endorsement rules “will be ruled out of order and will not be considered.”

The simmering rules quarrel is the latest in a rift between the state GOP and a far-right faction attempting to control the party apparatus and replace Republicans they see as too moderate. That includes U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, who is seeking a GOP endorsement for a third-term Saturday over Bismarck Rep. Rick Becker, who has headed a growing ultraconservative movement in the North Dakota Legislature for about a decade.

The U.S. Senate is the only one of eight statewide offices with a convention fight; all other candidates are unopposed at present.

Schafer said convention delegates have been sent a document by what he called a “rogue” group proposing amendments to convention rules that seek to have candidates who win the most votes be considered “nominees” on the November election ballot, rather than the “endorsed” candidate for the June primary election.

Candidates don’t need the endorsement to run in a primary, they only need petition signatures from 300 voters to make the ballot. Under the proposed rules, should Becker pull off an upset at the convention, Hoeven would not be allowed to run in the primary.

Schafer said placing a convention winner directly on the November ballot as the Republican candidate is illegal under state law.

“The NDGOP is a party of law and order, and it will not adopt rules that flagrantly disregard North Dakota law, procedures that violate our Rules, and the right of Republicans to choose candidates in the June primary election,” Schafer wrote to delegates.

Schafer said the “rogue group” also “has improperly used logos and images from the NDGOP’s official website on its website and press releases to mislead delegates into believing it is associated with the NDGOP.”

He said the state GOP was exploring its “legal options to ensure that this group, and any others wishing to harm the NDGOP and its values, are prevented from doing so.”

Ahead of the endorsement of candidates on Saturday, delegates are set to choose the convention chair. In past years, that has just been a formality, with the party chairman assuming the role. A possibility exists that the ultraconservative faction could nominate its own chairman, who, if elected by a majority of delegates, could seek to amend rules to change the endorsement process.

Curly Haugland, who was North Dakota’s Republican chairman from 1999 to 2001, is backing the effort to amend the convention rules to put a convention winner directly on the November general election ballot. Haugland also was elected as the state’s Republican national committeeman in 2004, which he held until 2016.

Haugland declined to say if he was a member of the group, but only that he had provided district chairmen in the group with “information.”

About 2,000 delegates are expected at the Bismarck Event Center, where the convention opens Friday as candidates begin staffing booths and mingling to coax support.

Haugland said rules adopted at the convention supersede state law.

“The Republican Party is not governed by laws. It is a private association of individuals that govern themselves at their periodic conventions at every level.”

Haugland said he is not backing Becker or Hoeven, but not allowing a change to the rules is a freedom of speech violation.

He said he probably would have agreed with the party’s stance now when he was its chairman more than two decades ago.

“At that time, most of us were of the impression that endorse and nominate are synonyms. Challenging the endorsed candidate was not seen as an option,” he said. “Things have changed.”