Leadership Starts with Listening

The distance between the halls of power and your front door has grown too wide. We believe that the best ideas don’t come from corner offices—they come from kitchen tables, local businesses, and community rallies. Our candidates haven’t just been campaigning: they’ve been listening. You spoke, and we’re ready to serve with steady, transparent leadership every citizen deserves.

The “Back to Basics” Citizens’ Legislative Agenda

We aren’t interested in political theater or complex jargon. We are returning to the fundamental responsibilities of government. Our “Back to Basics” approach ensures that every policy we propose is measured by one simple metric: Does this make life better for the people we serve?

Our Five Pillars of Common Sense

These pillars form the foundation of every decision we make. They are the non-negotiable principles that guide our candidates and our future legislation.

Ten Legislative Priorities

Based on survey data, listening sessions with citizens, and the economic landscape heading into the 70th Legislative Assembly in January 2027, North Dakotans are demanding a return to core pocketbook and quality-of-life issues. Voters and policy experts alike have highlighted a strong desire for state leadership to step back from divisive political distractions and focus on practical solutions.

Here are ten legislative priorities for the 2027 session that directly address the actual needs of citizens:

1. Meaningful Property Tax Reform & Special Assessment Caps

• The Need: Nearly 60% of surveyed voters report major concern over property taxes and special assessments. While state tax buy-downs provided temporary relief, homeowners continue to face unpredictable local “special assessments” for basic municipal infrastructure.
• Legislative Focus: Enacting statutory caps and closing “no-strings” tax loopholes enjoyed by major developers while capping hiddenspecial assessments on local residential property owners.

2. Relief for Family Budgets (Childcare & Affordable Housing)

• The Need: Nearly half (49%) of North Dakotans identifythe surging cost of living as their top daily struggle, driven heavily by soaringchildcare costs and housing scarcity.
• Legislative Focus: Expanding the Housing Incentive Fund (HIF) to build affordableworkforce housing and passing direct state childcare subsidies or tax creditsso working parents can remain in the labor force.

3. Universal K-12 Free School Meals & Public Education Investment

• The Need: Survey data reveals that 79% of North Dakotavoters support state-funded breakfast and lunch for all public school students.Following legislative inaction in 2025, citizens mobilized a statewide ballotmeasure for late 2026.
• Legislative Focus: Permanently codifying free school meals into the state budget—framing hunger as a barrier to learning—and protectingpublic education funds from being diverted to private school vouchers.

4. Fair State Employee Compensation & Salary Freeze Resolution

• The Need: To address a projected $748 million budget gap,initial executive budget guidelines proposed 10% base agency cuts and a 0% generalsalary increase for state employees.
• Legislative Focus: Balancing fiscal restraint without crippling public services, protecting the state’s 100% employer-paid health benefit model,and capping high-level executive bonus structures (such as the $1.3 millionRIO investment bonuses) to restore parity across the state workforce.

5. Closing State Funding Gaps

• The Need: Critical state funding deficits pose significant threats to essential public services and community infrastructure, particularly regarding rural healthcare access, mental health services, general healthcare affordability, and transportation infrastructure.
• Legislative Focus: Allocating predictable, dedicated state funding streams and targeted investments to expand rural healthcare access, strengthen mental health support networks, improve healthcare affordability for families, and bridge long-term funding shortfalls for local roads, bridges, and transit networks.

6. Performance-Based Workforce Attraction

• The Need: North Dakota faces a chronic labor deficit of 15,000 to 20,000 open jobs, particularly in healthcare, trade, and construction.
• Legislative Focus: Overhauling workforce recruitment campaigns (like “Find the Good Life”) by moving away from broad, high-cost image advertising and requiring strict, performance-based metrics that tie state spending directly to verified job placements.

7. Taxpayer Accountability, Ethics, & Contracting Transparency

• The Need: Public trust in state procurement has been damaged by outsized lobbyist influence and short grant application windows, e.g., the 10-day Commerce Department film grants.
• Legislative Focus: Codifying strict 30-day minimum Request for Proposal (RFP) windows for all state grants, enforcing digital Statementof Interests (SOI) disclosures for legislators, and closing loopholes in lobbyistgift reporting.

8. Managing State Budget with a Focus on Citizens’ Needs

• The Need: State budget planners must reconcile a $748 million gap between ongoing revenues and expenses amid volatile oil prices.
• Legislative Focus: Strategically deploying Legacy Fundearnings to buy down local tax burdens and fund critical infrastructure without exhausting the principal or triggering severe cuts to essential human services.

9. Local & State Partnerships for Industrial & Tech Siting

• The Need: The rapid influx of large-scale industrial projects—such as data centers and A.I. factories—presents major economic development opportunities, but creates local tensions regarding grid capacity, land use, water demands, and community impact.
• Legislative Focus: Establishing formal local communityand state government partnerships to ensure transparent siting processes, fairlocal revenue sharing, and sustainable infrastructure planning for major industrial developments.

10. Rural Economic Prosperity & Agriculture Essentials

• The Need: Rural voters express frustration with legislativeenergy being spent on “culture war” debates rather than agricultural and small-town vitality.
• Legislative Focus: Investing in farmer-led innovation, broadening access to affordable crop insurance, expanding rural high-speed internet, and supporting local municipal water and road infrastructure.