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David Clemens

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David Clemens

Image of David Clemens

North Dakota State Senate District 16

Tenure

2016 - Present

Term ends

2028

Years in position

8

Predecessor

Compensation

Elections and appointments

Education

Military

Personal

Contact

David Clemens (Republican Party) is a member of the North Dakota State Senate, representing District 16. He assumed office on December 1, 2016. His current term ends on December 1, 2028.

Clemens (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the North Dakota State Senate to represent District 16. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Clemens completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

David Clemens served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1971. He earned a high school diploma from Oak Grove Lutheran School and bachelor's degree from North Dakota State University in 1996. His career experience includes working as a business owner and quality engineer. Clemens has been affiliated with the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.[1]

Committee assignments

Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at:editor@ballotpedia.org.

2023-2024

Clemens was assigned to the following committees:

2021-2022

Clemens was assigned to the following committees:

2019-2020

Clemens was assigned to the following committees:

2017 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:

North Dakota committee assignments, 2017
Human Services
Transportation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Elections

2024

See also: North Dakota State Senate elections, 2024

General election

Democratic primary election

Republican primary election

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Clemens in this election.

2020

See also: North Dakota State Senate elections, 2020

General election

Democratic primary election

Republican primary election

2016

See also: North Dakota State Senate elections, 2016

Elections for the North Dakota State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election took place on June 14, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was April 11, 2016.

David Clemens defeated incumbent Tyler Axness in the North Dakota State Senate District 16 general election.[2][3]

North Dakota State Senate, District 16 General Election, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png David Clemens 54.09% 4,466
     Democratic Tyler Axness Incumbent 45.91% 3,790
Total Votes 8,256
Source: North Dakota Secretary of State


Incumbent Tyler Axness ran unopposed in the North Dakota State Senate District 16 Democratic primary.[4][5]

North Dakota State Senate, District 16 Democratic Primary, 2016
Party Candidate
    Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Tyler Axness Incumbent (unopposed)


David Clemens ran unopposed in the North Dakota State Senate District 16 Republican primary.[4][5]

North Dakota State Senate, District 16 Republican Primary, 2016
Party Candidate
    Republican Green check mark transparent.png David Clemens  (unopposed)

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

David Clemens completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Clemens' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Married to Jody and we have 4 children. Owner of Clemens Transport Company that works with highway construction. Graduated from NDSU with Industrial Engineering Degree. Past Chair of District 16 Republican Party. US Army Veteran and served in Vietnam. Politically conservative and support pro-life, military, local law enforcement, limited government, less taxes, less regulations, right to bear arms and the ND and US Constitutions.

  • Limited government by reducing regulations and taxes.
  • Defend the Right to Bear Arms and the entire Constitution.
  • Support Pro-Life legislation, which would include the unborn and the elderly.

Support an individual's right to own property, reduce property taxes, support parental rights concerning family and education, protect children from sexual abuse and provide for strong local law enforcement.

Be honest and transparent with the citizens of the state.

Respect and follow the US and ND Constitutions and maintain an attitude of serving those I represent.

Working on my father's farm and did this for 10 years. When I was 21, I was drafted into the US Army and served 2 years, one year in Vietnam. When I returned, I continued to farm for another 17 years. My early years taught me a strong work ethic and an appreciation for nature and the land. My later years of farming taught me the importance of economics and management of a business.

The Legislature is responsible for passing legislation, the Governor is to have final say on signing into law. The Governor should refrain from enacting policies that are not established through legislation.

Control spending and address property tax, especially residential.

May be beneficial but certainly not required.

It can help to have relationships, but your relationship should not compromise your convictions or principles concerning legislation.

Human Services and Transportation.

The people should be allowed information that shows State spending and the Legislature needs to treat the State's revenue as the peoples money.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

2020

David Clemens did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary


Ballotpedia LogoNote: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.


Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in North Dakota

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states.  To contribute to the list of North Dakota scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.

2024

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show].   

In 2024, the North Dakota State Legislature was not in session.

2023

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show].   

In 2023, the North Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 3 to April 29.

Legislators are scored on bills related to family issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2022

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show].   

In 2022, the North Dakota State Legislature was not in session.

2021

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show].   

In 2021, the North Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 5 to April 29.

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
Legislators are scored on bills related to family issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2020

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show].   

In 2020, the North Dakota State Legislature was not in session.

2019

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show].   

In 2019, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly was in session from January 3 through April 26.

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2018

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show].   

In 2018, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly did not hold a regular session.

2017

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show].   

In 2017, the 65th North Dakota Legislative Assembly was in session from January 3 through April 27.

Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Legislators are scored on bills related to family issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes related to business issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on bills relating to women's issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2016

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2016, click [show].   

In 2016, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly did not hold a regular session.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms David Clemens North Dakota Senate. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

External links

  • Search Google News for this topic
  • Footnotes

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    Majority Leader:David Hogue

    Minority Leader:Kathy Hogan

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