North Dakota
By Eric Ostermeier on May 22, 2012
The last time Florida Republicans held both Senate seats was 1875; WI (1957), ND (1960), and NE (1976) could also see an end to a decades-long Democratic presence in its state delegations.
By Eric Ostermeier on February 17, 2012
Five states have yet to elect a woman to Congress including two in the Upper Midwest.
By Eric Ostermeier on November 28, 2011
Heidi Heitkamp would be just the second current or former ND Attorney General elected to the US Senate while Rick Berg attempts to be the seventh US Representative.
By Eric Ostermeier on August 22, 2011
Republicans last held all of North Dakota's U.S. Senate and House seats in January 1959.
By Eric Ostermeier on May 23, 2011
North Dakota's -8.3 percent monthly decline in unemployment from March to April is its largest drop over the past 35+ years
By Eric Ostermeier on January 20, 2011
Connecticut has never voted for a Republican U.S. Senator and a Democratic presidential nominee in the same cycle
By Eric Ostermeier on January 19, 2011
GOP won nine Senate seats in the region last November for the first time since 1920
By Eric Ostermeier on December 10, 2010
After the 2010 election, GOP holds 311 of 497 lower chamber seats in IA, MN, ND, SD, and WI (62.2 percent) - the highest level since 1968 election (68.0 percent)
By Eric Ostermeier on November 30, 2010
Republicans have controlled the governor's mansions of IA, MN, ND, SD, and WI for over 72 percent of the time since 1846
By Eric Ostermeier on August 24, 2010
Gopher State job data trend lines generally favorable compared to the nation and the Upper Midwest region
By Eric Ostermeier on April 26, 2010
Republicans have never carried both single-member at-large districts in the same election cycle; Democrats have won 25 of 29 U.S. House contests in the Dakotas since 1982
By Eric Ostermeier on November 8, 2009
Region supported amendment banning abortion services from bill by 12-11 vote
By Eric Ostermeier on September 21, 2009
Minnesota continues to have the highest foreclosure rate in the Upper Midwest
By Eric Ostermeier on July 27, 2009
June was not a good month for jobs in the Upper Midwest, with unemployment increasing in Minnesota and three of its four neighboring states - Iowa, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. While unemployment remains below the national average across the region, the current rate of increase of jobless claims remains on...
By Eric Ostermeier on June 28, 2009
The newly released 2008 state rankings by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) finds the State of Wisconsin has passed Minnesota for overall health care quality in the United States. Minnesota, ranked #2 in 2008, was the top state in...
By Eric Ostermeier on May 29, 2009
While Minnesota and the rest of the Upper Midwestern states are still in the midst of enduring some of the largest unemployment rates each has endured for many years, most of the region is historically doing quite well on the employment front when compared to the situation of the country...
By Eric Ostermeier on May 22, 2009
For the second consecutive month, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has fallen in the State of North Dakota - providing further evidence of at least a lull in, if not a cessation to, the bad economic news that has befallen the Upper Midwest during the past year. April's jobless rate...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 24, 2009
Although the unemployment numbers released during the past week by Iowa Workforce Development find the Hawkeye State with its highest seasonally adjusted jobless rate since December 1987, Iowans are not losing their jobs at the rate endured by other Upper Midwestern states. At 5.2 percent, Iowa's current unemployment rate is...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 20, 2009
On Thursday, Upper Midwestern U.S. House Democrats unanimously supported a bill that would impose an additional tax on bonuses received from certain Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) recipients. The measured passed 328 to 93 in the lower chamber. The bill (HR 1586) taxes at 90 percent bonuses given to employees...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 17, 2009
What with Minnesota's unemployment rate and per capita 2010 budget deficit the largest in the entire Upper Midwestern region, one wonders if Gopher State residents will soon look to the purportedly thriving Dakotas to find economic shelter during these trying times. North Dakota's booming oil business received a lot of...
