VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The following is a news release by Recall Chairman Shane Anderson.

“People ask what happened to the recall of D-24 Representative Dwight Kiefert. The recall initiative started in July of 2021 when the ND Secretary of State approved the petition to recall Kiefert. Our recall committee was given one year to gather the required signatures. Many people participated in circulating the recall petition. The petition process was going along on schedule, and we were on pace to get the required signatures, while an estimated 90% of the people who were asked agreed to sign the petition. When completed, it would have forced Kiefert to run again this fall. Then in November of 2021, D-24 was redistricted, the new District lines included all of Ransom and Barnes county. This caused an issue, as one of the D-26 representatives that lived in Ransom County that wasn’t part of our district before redistricting now lived in D-24, and that forced the three Representatives, Kiefert, D-24 Rep. Cole Christensen, and D-26 Rep. Sebastian Ertelt terms to end in Dec. 2022, forcing a special election. Ertelt has since moved to Sargent County and is the endorsed Republican candidate for state Senate in his new district. But when this happened, the Secretary of State rescinded his approval of the recall petition because redistricting ended Kiefert’s term in Dec. 2022.

So after months of collecting signatures, the recall process wasn’t needed. Redistricting is causing Kiefert to run again to retain the two years left on his term and, consequently, the people of D-24 have an opportunity to elect someone else to represent D-24.

Last weekend, D-24 Republicans conducted an endorsing convention and overwhelmingly chose to endorse incumbent Rep. Cole Christensen and newcomer Phil Kleymann to run for the ND House of Representatives. Christensen was named Rookie Legislator of the year by the ND Speaker of the House during the 2021 Legislative Session, and Kleymann has pledged that if the lights are on and the roads are open, if elected, he will be in Bismarck to represent D-24 in person.”

Shane Anderson, Chairman of the Recall Committee.