Shelley Lenz, the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of North Dakota in 2020, will run as an independent candidate for the State Senate this year. See this story.

North Dakota has very difficult ballot access for minor party and independent candidates for state legislature. The minor party requirement is so difficult, no minor party nominee for legislature has been able to qualify since 1976. The law does not allow minor parties to nominate for legislature unless approximately 11% of all the primary voters choose the minor party’s primary ballot.

The independent candidate procedures are also difficult. Independents need a petition of 300 signatures, which represents approximately 4% of the number of voters who voted for president in the typical legislative district in 2020. Very few independent candidates for the legislature qualify. In 2018 and also in 2020, only one did so.