Dick Anderson

WILLOW CITY – Rep. Dick Anderson, R-Willow City, will be a Republican candidate on the June 11 primary ballot to represent District 6 in the North Dakota House of Representatives.

Anderson was first elected in 2010 to represent District 7 and in 2012 was elected in District 6 to serve in the House of Representatives.

Anderson has farmed and ranched on his family’s farm established in 1885. He still is actively farming with his son Jordan, who is the fourth generation to operate the farm. Anderson has served on numerous boards, including Rugby Farmers Elevator, Heart of America Medical Center, McHenry County Crop Improvement, North Dakota Game and Fish Advisory, North Central Board of Visitors, All Seasons Water Users and other community boards and organizations.

Anderson has spent five sessions on the Human Services Committee. He worked with the traumatic brain injury network to promote hyperbaric oxygen as a treatment for brain injuries. He has spent the last two sessions on the House Finance and Tax Committee.

Anderson has spent seven sessions on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where he worked on pipeline reclamation for property owners. He also established standards for pipelines concerning technology and methodology in installation to limit pipeline leaks. Anderson is currently the vice chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

If elected, he said, he will focus on developing and protecting the state’s natural resources, including coal, oil, natural gas, wildlife, water resources and agricultural land.

“It’s extremely important to develop our Missouri River water to benefit the entire state before the downstream states take it for their use,” he said.

He said his priorities will be to produce more electrical energy using natural gas and coal. Anderson also supports continuing development of rare earth minerals, looking for solutions to increase productivity on 6.5 million acres on saline soils, demanding more input from policy committees on appropriation funding, protecting property rights and developing a state Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). VAERS is currently a federal program that is operated by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta.