Ward County woman to fill vacant House seat in North Dakota Legislature

JoAnne Rademacher didn’t get directly involved in the North Dakota Republican Party until after she stopped posting her opinions on social media. 

“I decided to just get active,” the 70-year-old rural Ward County woman said. “Pick something, even one thing, and just get in there and do it. Make a difference where you are.”

Rademacher is now the newest member of the North Dakota Legislature, appointed Wednesday by the District 38 NDGOP executive committee to finish the term of retiring 23-year lawmaker Rep. Larry Bellew, R-Minot.

“Right now, my focus is on completing Larry’s term and doing the best job I can to honor his work and what he’s been doing,” Rademacher said. 

Bellew resigned Dec. 31, 2023, to move out of state to be closer to his grandchildren.

Rep. Larry Bellew resigns from North Dakota Legislature

Roger Neshem, chair of the District 38 GOP executive committee, said Rademacher was one of three candidates the committee considered to fill the legislative seat.

“I’ve worked with her on other projects before and she gets the work, and she gets active,” Neshem said. “She’s not a talker. She’s a walker and you ultimately need somebody like that, especially on short notice with something like this.”

Neshem said the district needed to nominate a replacement legislator within 21 days of being notified of a vacancy, otherwise Legislative Management would have selected an interim replacement.

He also pointed out Rademacher, a member of the District’s 18-member executive committee, serves as an example of how getting involved in politics at the local level can lead to opportunities when people least expect them.

“People need to realize, in North Dakota politics, a lot of us have gripes, but you don’t realize how easy you can go from griping to being part of the process to fix what you’re griping about,” he said. 

Bellew’s term expires at the end of November. Rademacher said the decision of who runs during the general election will be decided at the district nominating convention in February. 

She added, if the district nominates another candidate instead of her to run for the seat in November, she would be happy to endorse that person.

Rademacher, of Foxholm, which is northwest of Minot, describes herself as conservative, similar to Bellew. 

Rademacher grew up in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and moved to North Dakota after marrying her husband in 1977.

Rademacher had three children and the family worked a 100-head dairy farm until about 2004, when they switched to beef and other crops. During those years, she said, she was doing everything from working a Bobcat, to clearing manure out of their barn and driving a combine at harvest.

“I just did whatever needed to be done,” Rademacher said. “So, my career became farming, too. And raising my kids, that’s what I focused on.”

Reflecting on getting involved in the community, Rademacher said: “Grains of sand are nothing until you put them in a pile, right? It’s these bits and pieces that people do individually that add up to a groundswell to make changes. And that’s what we have to do. That’s what motivates me.”