The seat held by North Dakota Supreme Court Justice Jon Jay Jensen will be up for a nonpartisan election on November 3, 2020. Jensen is seeking re-election unopposed. Gov. Doug Burgum (R) appointed Jensen in 2017.
Despite the normal method of judicial selection being a nonpartisan election, all but one justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court was initially appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy. One of the justices was appointed by a Democratic governor while three were appointed by Republican governors.
The justices on the North Dakota Supreme Court are elected in nonpartisan elections for ten-year terms. The candidates compete in primaries where the top two contestants advance to the general election.
Whenever a vacancy occurs, the governor appoints a replacement from a list of names given to him by the North Dakota Judicial Nominating Committee. The committee has six voting members and one non-voting chairman. The governor appoints two voting members and the non-voting chairman. The chief justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court and president of the State Bar Association of North Dakota each appoint two of the remaining four voting members. As an alternative to appointing a replacement, the governor may call a special election to fill the vacancy.
Appointed judges serve for at least two years, after which they must run in the general election to finish the remainder of the unexpired term.
Across all types of state supreme court elections, incumbent justices running for re-election won 93% of the time from 2008-2019. North Dakota has not seen an incumbent supreme court justice lose an election during this same time frame.
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