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Endorses Bahr
The race
This North Dakota Supreme Court seat — an unexpired eight-year term — is on the November 3, 2026 ballot, and in the general election it is uncontested: Justice Douglas Bahr, renominated through the June primary (where he drew 71.31% in Stutsman County's official count against write-ins), is the sole candidate. There is no opponent to profile and we do not manufacture one.
Douglas Bahr — Incumbent justice. Bahr's career is the state of North Dakota's own legal service, layer by layer: law clerk to Iowa Supreme Court Justice Jerry L. Larson (1990–1991); nine years as an assistant attorney general and sixteen years as North Dakota's Solicitor General and director of the AG's Civil Litigation Division (1991–2016) — the state's chief civil litigator, appearing before the North Dakota Supreme Court more than 80 times and the Eighth Circuit 18 times; two years of Bismarck private practice at Crowley Fleck; district judge for the South Central Judicial District from 2018 (appointed by Governor Doug Burgum, elected in 2020, re-elected in 2022); and supreme court justice from February 1, 2023, appointed by Governor Burgum to succeed Justice Gerald VandeWalle. He is a past president of the State Bar Association of North Dakota, its ethics committee, the North Dakota Judges Association, and the Eighth Circuit bar association. Education: BYU (1987), University of South Dakota law (1990, Sterling Honors graduate and law review production editor).
Credits: Twenty-five years defending the state's laws in court as its solicitor general — the restraint-side institutional role, performed under attorneys general of the state's Republican establishment; two Republican-gubernatorial appointments (district bench, then this court) separated by two voter re-elections as a district judge; the bar's and judges' associations' repeated choice of him as president. Debits: His supreme court tenure began in 2023, so the authored appellate record is still short, and no signature opinion was retrieved in this pass; a career spent as the government's lawyer is alignment evidence of a specific kind — defense of enacted law — and we do not stretch it beyond what it shows.
OUR CALL
Our call: endorse Douglas Bahr. In an uncontested race we endorse only on an affirmatively aligned verified record, and Bahr's is the model of one: a quarter-century as the state's chief civil litigator defending enacted law, elevation by a Republican governor, election and re-election as a trial judge, and elevation again — each step sourced to official court and governor records. Nothing retrieved shows activism or controversy. He stands for the remaining eight years of the term without opposition on November 3.
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Sources
- North Dakota Court System — Justice Douglas A. Bahr, official biography — Iowa Supreme Court clerkship; assistant AG and sixteen years as Solicitor General and Civil Litigation Division director (1991–2016); Bismarck private practice; district judge 2018–2023 (appointed 2018, elected 2020, re-elected 2022); supreme court justice from February 2023; bar and judges' association presidencies — https://www.ndcourts.gov/supreme-court/justices/DouglasABahr
- Office of the Governor (North Dakota) — "Burgum appoints Judge Bahr to succeed VandeWalle on North Dakota Supreme Court on Feb. 1" (January 9, 2023) — the appointment; more than 80 North Dakota Supreme Court appearances and 18 Eighth Circuit appearances as the state's litigator; the governor's assessment — https://www.governor.nd.gov/news/burgum-appoints-judge-douglas-bahr-succeed-vandewalle-north-dakota-supreme-court-feb-1
- Stutsman County — 2026 Primary Election Official Results (June 9, 2026) — Bahr's unexpired eight-year-term contest on the primary ballot (71.31% in the county count) — https://stutsmancounty.gov/files/2026-primary-election.pdf
- 2026 United States judicial elections — North Dakota: Bahr (appointed 2023) renominated, sole candidate for November 3, 2026 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_judicial_elections
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.