Candidates endorsed at Region 6 district conventions

Bismarck, ND — Voters across nine Bismarck-Mandan districts gathered Saturday, February 7 at Sunrise Elementary School in Bismarck for a series of high-energy conventions to endorse legislative candidates and elect delegates to the upcoming Democratic-NPL State Convention which will be held March 6-8 in Bismarck.

Before the districts broke out into their conventions, a moment of silence was held for three U.S. citizens killed in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Alex Pretti, 37, killed on January 24, 2026; Renee Good, 37, killed on January 7, 2026; and Keith Porter, 43, killed on December 31, 2025.

• Vern Thompson, Minnewauken, a former North Dakota legislator, delivered his address via a pre-recorded video. Thompson has expressed the damage that Fedorchak’s vote for the Big Beautiful Bill has caused to cuts in healthcare funding and criticized Fedorchak for not holding town hall meetings.

• Helene Neville, Jamestown, chose the Bismarck event to announce her candidacy. Neville is a traveling nurse who had been coming to the state since 2012 and became a resident to North Dakota in 2020. She talked about overcoming a personal battle against cancer and surviving three surgeries, and her running journey across the country to raise awareness about cancer and to see how people in the country are living and getting by. She said she is running for Congress to give back to the state for taking care of her during her cancer battle.

• Trygvie Hammer, Minot, spoke of the state’s current congressional delegation “sitting on their hands” while actions by the curent administration such as tariffs, ICE, and Big Beautiful Bill cuts to Medicaide were unleashing damage to the state and country. Trygvie also used a personal experience of his father recently passing away and working through the spend down of his father’s assets until just $3,000 remained in order to quality for Medicaid-funding nursing care. Hammer also said he is currently working through the nursing home invoicing him for $47,000 of an unpaid balance of his father’s nursing home care. Hammer spoke of the need to reform the program as the $3,000 spend down limit has been in place for decades and hasn’t been increased to accommodate for inflation, which would enable a person to keep more of their lifesavings.

During the conventions, delegates had the opportunity to meet with the Dem-NPL legislative candidates and candidates challenging Fedorchak.

After the districts concluded their conventions, the candidates endorsed in the districts were revealed as follows:

District 7:
• Kevin Horneman
• Dr. Jason Thoms
• Tiffany Williams-Rice