Welcome to the Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- North Dakota legislators seek changes to term limit law and a look at term limits in the U.S.
- Thirty-two percent of February elections that Ballotpedia covered were uncontested
- The Senate has confirmed all of Trump’s 15 Cabinet secretaries
North Dakota legislators seek changes to term limit law and a look at term limits in the U.S.
There are more than 500,000 elected officials in the United States, less than 1% of whom are at the federal level. At every level of government, there are various criteria that determine who can run for office based on things like your age, where you live, and how long you’ve lived there.
In some states, another issue that determines who can run and how long they can serve is term limits. This is the case in North Dakota. In 2022, voters passed Constitutional Measure 1 63.4%-36.6%, limiting the governor to serving two terms and legislators to eight years in the state House and eight years in the state Senate. The amendment also states that only citizen initiatives and not the Legislature could amend the amendment.
Nevertheless, state legislators are considering several bills that, if approved, would change the term limit amendment.
These bills address a number of issues, including how many terms lawmakers are eligible to serve, how lawmakers’ years of service are counted, and whether the Legislature can propose constitutional amendments relating to term limits. The bills are:
- House Bill 1300
- House Concurrent Resolution 3034
- Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008
- Senate Concurrent Resolution 4028
All four bills have Republican sponsors. Republicans have a 42-5 majority in the state Senate and an 82-11 majority with one vacancy in the state House.
Lawmakers in the House passed HB 1300 64-28 on Jan. 27. The bill states that the time for calculating a legislator’s years of service does not begin to run until after the November 2022 election.
The other three bills would all increase the number of terms lawmakers can serve.
At a hearing for SCR 4028– which would allow legislators to serve three terms in either chamber– Sen. Justin Gerhardt (R) said, “Three terms allows leaders to serve long enough to gain institutional knowledge and contribute effectively without making public office a lifetime position.”
Kevin Hermann, a Beulah resident who spoke at the hearing, criticized the bill, saying it “tells the citizens of North Dakota that legislators will not honor the wishes of the outcome of the 2022 general election.”
Here’s a look at the landscape of term limits in the country.
In 2022, Michigan voters passed Proposal 1, modifying the state’s term limits for state legislators from three, two-year terms (six years) in the House and two, four-year terms (eight years) in the Senate to 12 combined years in the Legislature.
Ballotpedia’s extensive coverage of ballot measures includes statewide and local ballot measures on term limits. These measures are categorized by state and by year.
For a list of times legislatures and courts have overturned term limits, click here.
Term limits by office
Of the 7,386 state legislators in the U.S., 2,069 are term-limited. Of the 1,973 total senators, 609 are term-limited. Of the 5,413 representatives, 1,460 are term-limited.
The map below shows the 16 states that have state legislative term limits.
In 37 states, governors are term-limited.
In addition to these two office types, Ballotpedia also covers term limits for several others. To learn more about term limits in every state for each of the following types of office, click on the links below.
According to U.S. Term Limits, an organization whose website says it “advocates for term limits at all levels of government,” nine of the ten largest cities in the United States impose term limits on elected municipal officials. Here’s a list of those cities. Click here to learn about the affected offices.
- New York
- Los Angeles
- Houston
- Phoenix
- Philadelphia
- San Antonio
- San Diego
- Dallas
- San Jose
To learn more about term limits in the United States, click here.
Thirty-two percent of February elections that Ballotpedia covered were uncontested
Ballotpedia will cover 32,000 elections this year. Most of those are for local offices such as city councils, mayors, and school board members – the ones closest to the people. One thing we’ve discovered in our coverage of these races is how many are uncontested. Our most recent data from February shows that 32% of the 346 we covered in 15 states were uncontested. In January, we covered 25 elections, 24% of which were uncontested.
We define an uncontested election as one where the number of candidates running is less than or equal to the number of seats up for election. This analysis does not account for write-in candidates.
Most of the races we covered in February were in Illinois and Wisconsin. Of the 102 elections in Illinois, 21% were uncontested. Of the 125 elections in Wisconsin, 40% were uncontested.
So far this year, we have covered 371 elections in 18 states – 118 (32%) were uncontested. Between 2018 and 2024, an average of 64% of the elections we covered were uncontested, ranging from a low of 50% in 2021 to a high of 70% in 2024.
To see our January write-up, click here. To see our December write-up, which summarized uncontested elections in 2024, click here. Additionally, check out our Dec. 12 episode of On The Ballot to learn more about why so many elections go uncontested, particularly at the local level.
Click here to learn more about uncontested elections nationwide in the last month and in previous months.
The Senate has confirmed all of Trump’s 15 Cabinet secretaries
On March 10, the Senate confirmed the last of President Donald Trump’s (R) main 15 Cabinet secretaries. This is the fastest the Senate has confirmed all 15 Cabinet secretaries among presidential administrations from 2009 to the present.
The Senate voted 67-32 to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer for secretary of labor on March 10, with 16 Democrats and 51 Republicans voting in favor of her nomination.
At this point in Trump’s first term, the Senate had confirmed 13 of the 15 Cabinet secretaries.
At this point in Joe Biden’s presidency, the Senate had confirmed 12 of the main 15 Cabinet secretaries, and at this point in Barack Obama’s presidency, the Senate had confirmed 13.
While not explicitly identified in the Constitution, the Cabinet secretaries are the 15 agency heads in the presidential line of succession. During Trump’s second term, the following offices are also Cabinet-rank positions: White House chief of staff, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Trade Representative, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the director of National Intelligence, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, and the ambassador to the United Nations.
The Senate has not yet voted on Trump’s final Cabinet-level nominee: Elise Stefanik, for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In February, Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said, “We’re kind of taking our direction from the White House in terms of who they want to move and when. But my assumption is it probably has to do with the majority, the margin they have in the House right now.”
Stefanik is a member of the U.S. House representing New York’s 21st Congressional District. As of March 12, Republicans held a 218-214 majority in the U.S. House, which Stefanik’s confirmation would lower to a 217-214 majority.
To learn more about how Trump’s Cabinet or other presidential appointees are confirmed, click here.