Election night watch parties end quietly for Grand Forks Democrats, Republicans
Nov. 6—GRAND FORKS — Democratic and Republican watch parties in Grand Forks closed out in much the same way: quietly, with dwindling crowds huddled around phones and laptops waiting for election results as others headed for the door.
Voters in District 18 and 42 handed solid victories to Grand Forks' Republicans Tuesday evening, Nov. 5, shutting Democrats out of the four House seats and two Senate seats on the ballot as the party reaffirmed its state supermajority.
By the end of the night, those who lost seemed somewhat resigned; the victors seemed pretty worn out, too.
"It looks like the people voted for Vetter, so I'm going to go home and be happy about it," District 18 Rep. Steve Vetter told the Herald. "And then I'm going to get up and get to work."
Empty glasses and discarded bowls of popcorn piled up on tables on either side of Vetter as he made his way out of the back room of Ground Round, where the party had set up camp.
TVs on either end of the room played a muted Fox News election night broadcast. People glanced up occasionally, but most seemed focused on their phones, where they could refresh the secretary of state website and monitor their vote margins.
Vetter ended the evening with a comfortable lead in his district's House race; his running mate, Nels Christianson, was ahead of Democratic runner-up Mary Adams by only 60 votes.
Adams said Wednesday she may call for a recount in that race depending on the certified results, which is allowed under state law for races with thin margins.
That recount is presently the only option Democrats have to pick up a seat in Grand Forks. Without it, the city will be represented almost entirely by Republicans in the Legislature, with District 43 Rep. Zac Ista as Grand Forks' sole Democratic legislator.
"It's just hard to work with a supermajority, after being there," Adams recalled of her time as a representative. "They know they have the votes to pass everything that they want to pass; they don't even have to listen to both sides. But we'll do what we can. We'll just fight for the citizens of North Dakota the best we can, and hopefully it will work."
A group of Democrats took in the election at Archives Coffee House, the UND-adjacent coffee shop owned by District 18 Democratic Senate candidate Kyle Thorson.
A table by the door held campaign T-shirts, stickers and signs, and there were free snacks.
String lights hung overhead, and upbeat music played until Thorson set up a livestream of ABC's election night broadcast.
Thorson, who lost his election Tuesday and has run for office four times now, said he's frustrated by the Legislature's lack of action on issues like teacher salaries and prescription drug prices — issues he's been talking about for years.
He's also frustrated about the apparent apathy toward the threatening social media messages his opponent, Sen. Scott Meyer, sent him in the weeks before the election.
A blitz of local political ads recounted the incident, where Meyer called Thorson a "beta" and implied he would send "special operators" after Thorson; Meyer said in October he planned to apologize to Thorson.
"There's little accountability for Republicans," Thorson said. "We've created a place where you have 87% — probably soon to be more — Republicans, and it creates an environment for people like Ray Holmberg to get away with what he got away with for years."
Holmberg, a longtime former Republican state senator, recently was sent to jail as he awaits sentencing on child sex charges.
Thorson said he plans to continue advocating, and asks Grand Forks Democrats to do so as well.
"We just have to keep showing up," Thorson said. "We have to keep holding them accountable. No matter how much power they have, it's the right thing to do."
Meyer spent much of Tuesday night on pins and needles, as the margin between him and Thorson came within a few dozen votes before rebounding toward Meyer.
Over at Archives, the crowd cheered when Vice President Kamala Harris picked up one state and booed when the network called another for former President Donald Trump.
Anxiety began to set in as Trump picked up a win in North Carolina, and the polls shifted his way in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Trump's climbing electoral count didn't seem to register in the same way at Ground Round; Josh Anderson, the Grand Forks GOP's district chair and one of the few people paying steady attention to a TV, said he didn't know how to feel about the race, and recalled he'd watched the election flip from favoring Trump toward Biden around the same time four years ago.
Eric Murphy, a District 43 representative, said the national results suggested the Democrats were in need of a come-to-Jesus moment.
"I think Democrats have to sit back and look at it and say, maybe we aren't doing as well as we thought," he said, while noting he did not support Trump.
On the other hand, he said, "Republicans have got to come in and do something. We can't just sit back and complain and then do nothing."
The Herald's Sav Kelly contributed to this report.
