North Dakota Rep. Jayme Davis to run for North Dakota Senate District 9 seat

Jan. 31—ROLETTE — North Dakota House Rep. Jayme Davis (D-Rolette) has announced her run for the State Senate District 9 seat.

Davis currently represents District 9A in the North Dakota House of Representatives, and was first elected in 2022.

Districts 9 and 15 would not normally have an election next year.

Because a federal judge found that the North Dakota Legislature violated the Voting Rights Act

by packing Native voters into district 9A, diluting their votes in Districts 9B and 15, those districts

will be on the ballot.

The Senate seat for District 9 is currently held by Kent Weston (R-Sarles).

Davis is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. In the Legislature, Davis served on the Human Services Committee and Political Subdivisions Committee, was Minority Caucus Leader, and helped codify the Indian Child Welfare Act into Century Code, which she considers one of her biggest accomplishments, according to a release.

"When we were worried that the (United States) Supreme Court would gut (the Indian Child Welfare Act), I'm very honored to have worked to pass of the strongest ICWA state laws in the U.S.," Davis said in a statement. "Adding ICWA to the North Dakota Century Code protects the children of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, MHA Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Spirit Lake Nation, and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate."

The ICWA is the law that seeks to keep Native American children with Native American families. First enacted in 1978, in 2023 the United States Supreme Court upheld the law after being challenged for its constitutionality.