North Dakota

Results

Size of Lead

Change from ‘08

State Highlights

By Ken Belson

North Dakota is among the most solidly Republican states — President Obama lost by nearly 9 percentage points four years ago — and Mitt Romney had no trouble winning this state on Tuesday.

But many residents will happily acknowledge that they are better off now than they were four years ago, thanks to a booming energy sector. The average family income in the state jumped 11 percent from 2000 to 2010, and the unemployment rate of 3 percent is the lowest in the country by far.

Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, won a surprising victory in a Senate race, defeating Rick Berg, a Republican who narrowly won a Congressional seat two years ago.

The seat was being vacated by Kent Conrad, a Democrat whose announcement that he would not to run for re-election provoked assumptions that the seat would be easily won by Republicans. But Ms. Heitkamp, a former state attorney general who connected well with voters, ended up winning by nearly 3,000 votes, or 1 percentage point.

Republicans retained the state’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, with Kevin Cramer trumping Pam Gulleson, a Democrat.

President 100% reporting
	Candidate	Party	Votes	Pct.	Change from ‘08	Electoral Votes
	Mitt Romney	Rep.	187,586	58.7%	+5.5%	3
	Barack Obama	Dem.	124,490	38.9%	-5.6%	0
	Gary Johnson	Lib.	5,213	1.6%	–	0
	Jill Stein	Green	1,357	0.4%	–	0
	Virgil Goode	Con.	1,179	0.4%	–	0
President Map \| President Big Board \| Exit Polls

Senate 100% reporting
	Candidate	Party	Votes	Pct.
	Heidi Heitkamp	Dem.	160,752	50.5%
	Rick Berg	Rep.	157,758	49.5%
Senate Map \| Senate Big Board \| Exit Polls


Candidate	Party	Votes	Pct.
Jack Dalrymple	Rep.	199,769	63.2%	Incumbent
Ryan M. Taylor	Dem.	108,622	34.3%
Paul Sorum	Ind.	5,338	1.7%
Roland Riemers	Ind.	2,607	0.8%

House of Representatives
District	Democrat	Republican	Other	Reporting
1	41.8%Gulleson	55.0%Cramer	3.2% Other	100%
* Incumbent House Map \| House Big Board \| Exit Polls

Major Ballot Initiatives
Measure	Yes	No	Reporting
1 Amend Constitution to eliminate authority of legislature to levy a poll tax?	71.4%	28.6%	100%
2 Amend Constitution to require governor and members of executive branch to take oath of office?	88.7%	11.3%	100%
3 Amend Constitution to guarantee right to farm, including modern technologies and methods?	66.9%	33.1%	100%
4 Prohibit smoking in most public places and workplaces?	66.7%	33.3%	100%
5 Make harming a cat, dog or horse a felony under most circumstances?	34.6%	65.4%	100%

Treasurer 100% reporting
Candidate	Party	Votes	Pct.
Kelly Schmidt	Rep.	196,295	65.9%	Incumbent
Ross Mushik	Dem.	101,441	34.1%