The North Dakota Republican Party did not hold a presidential preference caucus or primary, but instead selected 28 Republican National Convention delegates unpledged to any particular candidate at the state party convention, which was held April 1–3, 2016. A generally pro-Cruz slate of delegates was elected to the convention. Cruz had the support of 14 delegates before he dropped out of the race. Three of them switched to Trump on May 27 along with all 13 of the uncommitted delegates giving Trump the majority of commitments and the support of 17 delegates.
Voting history
North Dakota joined the Union in November 1889 and has participated in all elections from 1892 onwards. Since 1900, North Dakota voted Democratic 17.24 percent of the time and Republican 82.76 percent of the time. Since 1968, the state has always voted Republican.
Predictions
The following are final 2016 predictions from various organizations for North Dakota as of Election Day.
nominee Donald Trump won North Dakota in a 36-percentage-point routing over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, thus carrying the state's 3 electoral votes. Like many neighboring majority-white, largely ruralGreat Plains and prairie states, North Dakota has not supported a Democratic candidate for president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. North Dakota politics are dominated by the farm, with a largely white and older populace who are socially conservative. Though the state's farming population has briefly flirted with populism, that movement is now mostly faded from North Dakota politics, as farms in North Dakota are no longer tilled by solitary yeoman and are no longer family-owned as much, and are replaced by agribusinesses. In recent presidential elections, Bakken shale oil has been a major driver of conservative success in the state, as its economy is increasingly fueled by the North Dakota oil boom and its population grows suspect of the environmental movement championed by Democrats. The main oil boom has taken place in the counties west and northwest of Bismarck, where Donald Trump won sometimes north of 80% of the vote. Donald Trump won in Grand Forks County which contains the city ofGrand Forks, in Cass County which contains the city of Fargo, and in Burliegh County which contains the capital city of Bismarck. He also swept most of the rural and deeply conservative counties of the state, sometimes taking more than 80% of the vote in a county. Clinton won resoundingly in Sioux County, which is majority Native American and is the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest by its inhabitants, the Sioux Indian tribe.
