The 2004 North Dakota gubernatorial election took place on 2 November 2004 for the post of

Governor of North Dakota The governor of North Dakota is the head of government of North Dakota and serves as the commander-in-chief of the state's North Dakota National Guard, military forces. The Constitution of North Dakota specifies that "the executive power is ves ...

Incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...

Republican governor

John Hoeven John Henry Hoeven III ( ; born March 13, 1957) is an American banker and politician serving as the senior U.S. senator from North Dakota, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, Hoeven served as the 31st governor of N ...

was easily re-elected defeating Democratic-NPL former

state senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

Joe Satrom.

Republican nomination

Incumbent governor John Hoeven was unopposed for the Republican nomination and accepted the nomination by stating that the economy of North Dakota was his priority.

Democratic-NPL nomination

Former state senator Joe Satrom defeated

North Dakota House of Representatives The North Dakota House of Representatives is the lower house of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly and is larger than the North Dakota Senate. North Dakota is divided into between 40 and 54 legislative districts apportioned by population as ...

minority leader

Merle Boucher Merle Boucher (born July 19, 1946) is a North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party politician who served in the North Dakota House of Representatives, representing the 9th district from 1991 to 2011. He served as Minority Leader from 1996 to 2011. Bouc ...

for the Democratic-NPL nomination. Satrom began campaigning for the nomination almost a year before the

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

Democratic-NPL Convention would choose the parties candidate for governor. Boucher announced his candidacy in December 2003 but struggled to make up ground against Satrom. The two candidates debated at the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (UND) is a Public university, public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States. It was established by the Dakota Territory, Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishm ...

, just before the convention, with education and the future of the state's youth the main topics. The Democratic-NPL Convention voted by 632 to 341 to endorse Satrom as their candidate for governor.

General election

Campaign

The two candidates met in three debates during the campaign, during the final debate on 9 October 2004 they clashed over a

smoking ban Smoking bans, or smoke-free laws, are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, that prohibit tobacco smoking in certain spaces. The spaces most commonly affected by smoking bans are indoor employ ...

, outmigration and a proposed

constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment (or constitutional alteration) is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly alt ...

to ban

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. Satrom called for North Dakota to introduce a one thousand

dollar Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies. The United States dollar, named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar, was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian d ...

donation A donation is a gift for Charity (practice), charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, Service (economics), services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donati ...

limit, for individuals and

political action committees In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The le ...

, to avoid any perception of

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

. Hoeven named education, growth and jobs as his priorities but faced anger from some hunting groups over changes to hunt seasons.

Opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of qu ...

s gave Hoeven a strong lead over Satrom with one in October 2004 showing Hoeven on 70% as against 22% for Satrom. Hoeven raised far more money than his challenger and even a normally Democratic supporting teachers union, the North Dakota Education Association, endorsed Hoeven for governor.

Predictions

Results

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

* Divide (largest city:

Crosby Crosby may refer to: Places Canada *Crosby, Ontario, part of the township of Rideau Lakes, Ontario *Crosby, Ontario, a neighbourhood in the city of Markham, Ontario England *Crosby, Cumbria *Crosby, Lincolnshire *Crosby, Merseyside **Crosby (UK P ...

) * Benson (Largest CDP: Fort Totten) *

Name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

(Largest city:

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

) *

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

(Largest city:

Lakota Lakota may refer to: *Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language Lakota ( ), also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan languages, Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of ...

) *

Ransom Ransom refers to the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release. It also refers to the sum of money paid by the other party to secure a captive's freedom. When ransom means "payment", the word ...

(Largest city:

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

) * Richland (largest city: Wahpeton) * Sargent (Largest city: Gwinner) * Steele (Largest city: Finley) * Towner (Largest city: Cando) * Traill (Largest city: Mayville)

References

{{North Dakota elections

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

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...