The Democratic Party of the Northern Mariana Islands is a political party in the

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonw ...

. It began as a purely local territorial party and is now officially affiliated with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

' national Democratic Party.

History

In 1977, the Popular Party changed its name to the Democratic Party. The Popular Party's opponent, the Territorial Party, would change its name to the Republican Party in 1981. The CNMI has not elected a Democratic Governor since 1993, when Froilan Tenorio was elected. At the

legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

elections of November 1, 2003 the party won 1 out of 18 seats. It won an extra seat in the 2005 legislative elections. Its candidate Froilan Tenorio won 18% in the 2005

gubernatorial election A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of politica ...

. In the November 3, 2007 Commonwealth Legislature

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

, the party took only 1 of 20 seats in the House of Representatives. In 2009, for the first time ever, the Democratic Party did not nominate a candidate in the

. They fielded a candidate for Mayor of

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

(Angelo Villagomez), along with two CNMI House candidates and one CNMI Senate candidate. In August 2016, the Commonwealth Election Commission recognized the party for the 2016 election year. Three of the 67 political candidates on the NMI are Democrats. The party organized the 2020 Northern Mariana Islands Democratic caucuses. In the 2020 elections, four incumbent representatives announced that they would run for re-election as Democrats. The party is running 18 candidates, and supporting 3 independent candidates. Prior to the election, there were zero Democrats in either chamber of the Commonwealth Legislature. The result of the 2020 general election was that the CNMI had experienced a blue wave as the party gained nine Democrats and the three endorsed independents were elected to office. For the time in a decade, representatives affiliated with the Democratic Party had seats in the legislature. In the special election to replace the late Republican legislator Ivan A. Blanco, Democratic candidate

Corina Magofna Corina Lorraine Magofna is a member of the Northern Mariana Islands Senate from Saipan. Magnofa was elected to the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives in a 2021 special election. Magofna was then elected to the Senate in the 2022 gen ...

won the special election, flipping the seat. In the 2022 gubernatorial election, the party nominated Tina Sablan for governor with

Leila Staffler Leila Haveia Fleming Clark Staffler is an American politician and educator who served as a member of the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives for the 5th district. Staffler is the Secretary of Labor under Governor Arnold Palacios. S ...

as her running mate. She lost the 1st race, conceded, and endorsed independent candidate Arnold Palacios and his running mate

David Apatang David Mundo Apatang (born July 10, 1948) is a Northern Mariana Islander politician who is serving as the 13th lieutenant governor of the Northern Mariana Islands since 2023. He previously served as the mayor of Saipan from January 12, 2015 to Janu ...

. The party lost much of their gains from the previous election in the House, winning 4 seats, half of their previous win. They did gain a seat in the Senate, increasing their number to 2.

Positions

The Democratic Party of the Northern Mariana Islands has defended Article 12 of the CNMI Constitution which restricts land alienation to persons of Northern Marianas descent.

External links

Official website

References

Political parties in the Northern Mariana Islands {{NorthernMarianas-stub