Judy Estenson

In 2022, I was honored to be elected by the people of District 15 to serve in the North Dakota State Senate. Representing my community was one of the greatest privileges of my life, and I worked hard to uphold the trust voters placed in me.

My four-year term was cut short — not by the voters, but by a federal court order. A lawsuit challenged the legislative district boundaries, claiming that the map drawn by our Legislature diluted the voting power of Native American communities. The court accepted that argument and imposed a new map after giving the Legislature just 30 days to redraw the map-at a time when the Legislature was not in session, making compliance virtually impossible. Under that plan, the area near Spirit Lake, where I live, was removed from District 15 and combined with Turtle Mountain into a newly created District 9. At the same time, District 15 was redrawn and filled through a mid-cycle election that was never supposed to happen.

This meant that in 2024 I was forced to run in District 9, while District 15 was handed to someone else. I campaigned hard across a district that stretched more than 100 miles, but the new map created a political environment where a Republican simply could not prevail. The result was that voters in both District 15 and District 9 lost continuity in their representation. The community that elected me in 2022 was split apart, and the representation of both districts was determined by a court-drawn map rather than by the Legislature or the regular election cycle.

In May 2025, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the lower court’s order and dismissed the lawsuit. In plain terms, the appeals court confirmed that the case should never have resulted in new districts or mid-cycle elections. But soon after, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency stay, leaving the judicially drawn districts in place while it considers the case. A ruling is expected, but likely not until after the June 2026 primary. That leaves both candidates and voters in doubt about whether participating in that primary is worth the cost and effort, given the possibility that the district lines could change yet again.

Until now, I have largely remained silent as this case worked its way through the courts. But I cannot be silent any longer. I am deeply frustrated that a judge’s decision could undo the will of the voters who elected me in 2022. I am angry that a mid-cycle court order forced me from office, deprived District 15 of its chosen senator, and reshaped District 9 in a way that made it nearly impossible for me — or any Republican — to win. I am angry that this disruption left thousands of citizens without the representation they had chosen and sowed confusion across our communities.

My issue is not with the individuals who now serve or the voters who elected them. They acted under the rules in place at the time. My concern is with a process that disregarded existing representation and injected race-based division into our political system.

Districts should never be drawn in a way that virtually guarantees one side cannot win. True fairness means respecting communities as they are, not dividing them by race or political outcome. Every voter — Native and non-Native, Republican and Democrat — deserves an equal voice in shaping our state.

Whatever the courts ultimately decide, my commitment remains with the people of the legislatively drawn District 15, who elected me in 2022 to serve a four-year term. That commitment has not changed, even though the court’s map placed me in District 9 for the 2024 election. My dedication is to fair and stable representation — ensuring that the people of every district are able to choose their senators and representatives through the regular process, without court-ordered disruptions in the middle of a term.

North Dakota’s strength has always been our unity and our shared commitment to community. What happened in Districts 15 and 9 should never happen again. Let’s restore fairness, stability, and trust in our system by ensuring that when people elect their representatives, those choices are respected for the full term.