Alvin A. Jaeger (born December 10, 1943) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who served as the Secretary of State of

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 ...

from 1993 to 2023. Jaeger was elected to the office in 1992, and re-elected in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Biography

Al Jaeger was born in

Beulah, North Dakota Beulah is a city in Mercer County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 3,058 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Beulah is home to the Dakota Gasification Company. It is near the largest lignite mine in the United States, ...

in 1943. He was raised there and he graduated in 1961 from Beulah High School. He attended

Bismarck State College Bismarck State College (BSC) is a public college in Bismarck, North Dakota. It is the third largest college in the North Dakota University System with 3,781 students as of September 2016. Established in 1939, it is a comprehensive community co ...

and in 1963 earned an

Associate of Arts An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

degree. In 1966, he received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree from

Dickinson State University Dickinson State University (DSU) is a public university in Dickinson, North Dakota, United States. It is part of the North Dakota University System. It was founded in 1918 as Dickinson State Normal School and granted full university status in ...

, majoring in Business Education with a minor in Speech. He also completed post-graduate work 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 ...

in 1968 and at

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana, United States. It enrolls more students than any other college or university in the state. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's d ...

in 1970. During his high school and college years, Jaeger worked for his father's excavating and ready-mix concrete company. After graduating from Dickinson State, he taught at Killdeer High School for three years and then at Kenmare High School for another two years. Upon moving to

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo is the List of cities in North Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which was e ...

in 1971, Jaeger worked for two years for the

Mobil Oil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after it and Mobil merged in 1999. A direct descenda ...

Corporation as a marketing analyst. From 1973 to 1992, Jaeger was self-employed as a real estate broker and owned his own real estate brokerage business in Fargo. Jaeger became North Dakota's fourteenth Secretary of State in 1993, and was reelected in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2014. In April 2018, Jaeger was defeated by Will Gardner at the North Dakota Republican Party convention, who thus secured the Republican nomination. The following month, Gardner withdrew from the race after revelations that he had pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in January 2006. Jaeger had said that he wouldn't run for re-election but with only Democratic-NPL candidate Josh Boschee on the ballot, Jaeger changed his mind and ran as an independent. He won the election with 47.27% of the vote and announced on election night that he would retire upon the conclusion of his eighth term. He resides in Bismarck with his two daughters and a stepson from his wife Kathy, who passed away in 2016.

Electoral history

References

External links

North Dakota Secretary of State
, - 1943 births Living people 21st-century North Dakota politicians Bismarck State College alumni Dickinson State University alumni Montana State University alumni North Dakota independents North Dakota Republicans Secretaries of state of North Dakota People from Mercer County, North Dakota University of North Dakota alumni 20th-century North Dakota politicians {{NorthDakota-politician-stub