In voting to support the bill, Cory is a lot like her party, but a little less like her closest GOP neighbors. Counting House votes from 16 legislative districts running along North Dakota’s urban border with Minnesota — stretching from Grand Forks to Fargo to Wahpeton — the bill was defeated 21-11. Nine of those votes against the bill were Republicans — and those nine make up the majority of GOP representatives statewide who broke with their party and opposed HB 1298.
That gap highlights the political divide between North Dakota’s deeply conservative rural regions and its more urban, eastern spine — and it raises questions over the future of the party’s positions on social issues.