North Dakota Republican candidate for the state legislature, David Andahl — who passed away from COVID-19 last month — wins the election on Nov. 3, 2020. He is one of the two republicans elected to represent the state’s eighth district in the House of Representatives in North Dakota. He won about 35 percent of the vote to win the seat.
Andahl earned more than triple the votes of the democratic candidate. Dave Nehring holds the other seat in the house because the district chooses two representatives to represent them in the house.
At the age of 55, the Bismarck-area republican nominee was hospitalized in October with COVID-19, and soon after he passed away from complications. His mother stated,
He really cared for his county, his heart was in farming. He wanted to improve the farming and coal industries.
Coronavirus is spreading quickly about 50,000 people in the state of about 750,000 have tested positive and 555 people died in North Dakota. According to local health officials, the positivity test rate has surpassed 12 percent. They reported 8,440 active cases, which is the highest amount since the state began tracking in march.
As reported by the unofficial tally Andahl won 5,901 votes and Nehring won 6,763 or about 40 percent of votes cast. Democrats Kathrin Volochenko and Linda Babb won less than 2,000 votes each, which is about twelve percent and ten percent of the vote.
Andahl remained because early voting had already started weeks before his death. Although he passed he has been named victorious in the election. About one-third of mail-in votes had already returned ballots at the time of his death.
Written by Jessica Letcher
Edited by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
Fox News: North Dakota state legislative candidate David Andahl, dead from coronavirus, wins election; Daniella Genovese
CNBC News: North Dakota Republican who died of Covid-19 wins seat in state legislature; Tucker Higgins
Fox News 9: North Dakota legislature candidate who died from COVID-19 wins election; Fox 9 Staff
Featured Image Courtesy of Jimmy Emerson’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of The U.S. Army’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
