My name is Donna Henderson and I am running for the District 9B seat in the North Dakota House of Representatives.

I’ve been married to Paul for 38 years, and we have 6 children. The oldest 3 are married, and we have 5 grandchildren so far. They are the reason I am running.

I‘m a farmwife, homeschool teacher for our children, and my hobbies are gardening and being involved in politics. My first political meeting was 28 years ago. At that meeting I was asked if I would like to attend the State Republican Convention that year. Since then, I think I’ve only missed one convention, the year we had our twin boys born just weeks before the convention.

I’ve been very involved in my local district, including serving on our Executive committee for the last 12 years, not to mention at the state level, having served in many different positions within the Republican Party. I’ve attended the last 4 national conventions to elect a presidential candidate. My time has mainly been spent organizing meetings, dinners, fundraisers, and doing the hard work to help good candidates get elected to represent our community. These experiences have given me great insight into how voters in our towns and farming communities think about the issues, and the concerns that they have.

I haven’t limited myself to just our local district and region. Many times, our family has loaded up the car, headed to Grand Forks, Fargo, Bismarck and Minot to help people with good, conservative principles get elected. The best way to support our business community is to stay true to these principles – by keeping government regulations as minimal as possible and tax burdens as low as possible, and to ensure a level playing field for everyone to follow the same rules.

Being involved in the Republican party eventually drove me to pay more attention to legislative issues. This began 17 years ago, when there was a bill I disagreed with regarding my medical rights. Knowing nothing about the process at first, I showed up in Bismarck at the committee meeting and testified against that bill, and fortunately, the bill got voted down. It showed me that people really could make a difference. Since that first committee hearing, I have paid attention and, many times, researched and testified for or against various pieces of legislation.

Every legislative session since, I spend time reviewing some of the proposed bills. Over time, I have networked with other like-minded citizens around the state – including coordinating emailing, talking to legislators, and testifying in person as much as I could.  I was a registered lobbyist for 2 sessions and have helped with a bill from start to finish – drafting, getting sponsors, testifying, lobbying to get it passed in both houses, and getting the Governor’s signature. I understand the process and will bring my experience to the table.

Because of the hard work myself and my family have put in helping great candidates around the state be elected, I have a wide network of individuals I can rely on to help craft effective legislation and find allies to help see it through the process. Even more than my experience, I bring my energy to the table. As you all know, farm life can keep you busy, and being a mom and a homeschool teacher has given me the skillset to juggle a lot of tasks at once. Every session, we will be faced with hundreds of bills, or more. I know how to hustle and get the job done.

My core beliefs are as follows – I’m pro life, pro family, pro school choice, pro 2nd amendment, pro medical freedom, pro food freedom, pro small business, pro states rights and federalism, and against common core and other failed federal education programs, and against excess government regulations at all levels. The best way we can help businesses thrive is by helping families thrive. We cannot fail to defend our culture and values, which are under ruthless assault by DC politicians, woke crony capitalists and corrupt bureaucrats. Without instilling strong values and work ethic, families will crumble, and the foundation necessary for individuals to succeed in their business endeavors will suffer.

I’m running because these past couple of years we have seen an unprecedented loss of our freedoms in the name of safety — scientifically unfounded mask mandates, restricting businesses from operating at full capacity, not to mention employers, corporations and businesses discriminating against you if you don’t comply with their totalitarian demands. All the while, these measures failed to curb the spread of the virus, or actually protect those who were most vulnerable.

My primary goal in Bismarck is to get your freedoms back! We need to get back to personal responsibility – not government – for your safety and personal medical decisions.

I don’t have all the answers, and I’m willing to listen and learn from you – my constituents – and to come together to solve some of the problems and challenges we are facing.

In brief, I would like to see things streamlined in the state government. The state of North Dakota is sitting on over $27-some billion in funds. We are very wealthy, and we need to not forget that wealth belongs to the people, not the government. I want to see us stop wasting money on special pet projects, and business cronyism that picks winners and losers. We need to embrace the future of school choice and online learning, instead of dumping in millions upon millions into Higher Ed bureaucracy. We need more equitable funding formulas that will ensure our rural roads and communities, which are the backbone of the North Dakota economy, are not being slighted in favor of the bigger towns and cities.

With the recent redistricting process, our district borders changed and now I am very excited about the new District 9B. I grew up in Munich, and lived all my adult life in Calvin. Langdon is our county seat. We attended church in Rock Lake for many years, and I worked in Rolla for 14 years at the Dental office. I have friends and connections all over our new district. That, along with my political experience, makes me a great fit to be your Representative.