Attendance 95.4%; the average within the North Dakota Senate is 98.3%. Ranks 41st of 46, where 1st has the highest attendance. 998 roll calls in the ND 2025–26 session.
Attendance is the share of the roll calls Kessel could vote on where a yea, nay or present was recorded, ranked within the North Dakota Senate. A missed vote has many causes, from illness to campaigning; the number says how often, not why.
At a glance
6 measures against the North Dakota Senate. 88% of the 8 bills Kessel sponsored got out of committee, in the top quarter of the North Dakota Senate. 85% of Kessel’s itemized money in the 2026 cycle came from North Dakota, in the bottom quarter of State Senate Republicans.
The measures on which Kessel sits furthest from the middle of the North Dakota Senate, each against the same group, with the CSIP score when there is one. Every number is explained in its own section below.
Attendance
North Dakota Senate average 98.3% · ranks 41st of 46 · 998 roll calls
Out of committee
North Dakota Senate average 68% · ranks 7th of 29
From North Dakota, 2026
Of itemized individual dollars · ranks 654th of 860 State Senate Republicans
CSIP ideology
More liberal than 73% of State Senate Republicans · ± 0.04
Party unity
North Dakota Senate average 79% · ranks 22nd of 46 · 43 votes against the majority of North Dakota Senate Republicans
Itemized, 2026
State Senate Republicans’ median $46.2K · ranks 518th of 936
Peer group: North Dakota Senate. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; the thick bar is Kessel, the thin grey bar the peer average. The headline is the measure on which Kessel is most unusual among peers (Methods, §08).
What Kessel says
No statements for the ND 2025–26 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.
Policy
No policy statements for the ND 2025–26 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.
Ideology
Kessel sits at +0.20 on the CSIP scale, right of 0, more liberal than 73% of State Senate Republicans. Approximate range +0.16 to +0.24, which understates the uncertainty; from 11 donors and 574 roll calls.
CSIP, the lab’s Common-Space Ideal Point, places every official, federal and state, on one left–right scale, estimated from roll-call votes, who gives money to whom, and the text of statements. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it; 0 is the centre of the scale, not a definition of “moderate”.
CSIP ideal point
Approximate range +0.16 to +0.24. From 11 donors and 574 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.
The outlined dot is Kessel, coloured by its side of 0 (blue left, red right, deeper further out); the bar through it is the approximate range (±1.96 standard errors), which understates the uncertainty; the grey ticks below are the medians of Kessel’s groups. 0 is the centre of the scale, not “moderate” by definition.
What this means, and what it doesn’t
The score summarises how an official votes, who funds them and how they talk, relative to everyone else. It does not grade positions as good or bad, and two officials with the same score can differ on any single issue. The ± range is 1.96 standard errors, which understates the uncertainty: scores whose ranges overlap may not differ at all, and even scores whose ranges do not overlap may not differ.
Where Kessel sits
Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale
Show the data
| Group | Officials | Median | Share left of Kessel |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Senate Republicans | 1083 | +0.4 | 27% |
| North Dakota Senate | 47 | +0.1 | 57% |
| All State Senate | 1909 | +0.1 | 58% |
How to read the strips
Every small dot is one official on the same scale, coloured by its own score (blue left of 0, red right of 0, grey at 0, deeper further out) and spread up and down only to keep dots apart; where a group is crowded the dots overlap, and darker patches mean more officials. The large outlined dot is Kessel in every row; the rule is each group’s median. The table under the figure gives the share of each group to the left of Kessel.
Money
Kessel reported $37.4K in the 2026 cycle, below the State Senate Republicans’ median of $46.2K. State filings report no small-donation total. 85% of itemized individual money came from North Dakota.
Campaign money from state campaign-finance filings, as aggregates only; the lab never shows an individual donor. Campaigns must report by name every person who gives them more than $200 in a cycle (“itemized”); smaller gifts are reported only as one total (“unitemized”), so donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations describe itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift total, so these figures add up itemized contributions only.
itemized in the 2026 cycle
From 8 itemized donors. State Senate Republicans’ median $46.2K.
Where the money came from
Each square is one percent of itemized contributions in the 2026 cycle.
- Individuals (itemized)9 squares$3,250
- PACs and other committees83 squares$31.1K
- Party committees8 squares$3,000
Show the data
| Source | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals (itemized) | $3,250 | 8.7% |
| PACs and other committees | $31.1K | 83.3% |
| Party committees | $3,000 | 8.0% |
What this means, and what it doesn’t
Totals say how much a campaign took in, not how it was spent, and they rise sharply when a seat is up for election; compare cycles with that in mind.
Receipts by cycle
Itemized contributions, 2022 to 2026. The grey line is the State Senate Republicans’ median for 2026.
Show the data
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2022 cycle | $1,750 |
| 2024 cycle | $1,450 |
| 2026 cycle | $37.4K |
Top donor states, 2026
Itemized contributions by donor state. 85% came from North Dakota.
- North Dakota$2,750
- Iowa$500
Small donations
State filings report no total for small gifts.
Not reported in state filings.
Where itemized donors live
Individuals who gave more than $200, by donor state
Show the data
| State | Value |
|---|---|
| North Dakota | $2,750 |
| Iowa | $500 |
| Alaska | No data |
| Maine | No data |
| Vermont | No data |
| New Hampshire | No data |
| Washington | No data |
| Idaho | No data |
| Montana | No data |
| Minnesota | No data |
| Illinois | No data |
| Wisconsin | No data |
| Michigan | No data |
| New York | No data |
| Rhode Island | No data |
| Massachusetts | No data |
| Oregon | No data |
| Nevada | No data |
| Wyoming | No data |
| South Dakota | No data |
| Indiana | No data |
| Ohio | No data |
| Pennsylvania | No data |
| New Jersey | No data |
| Connecticut | No data |
| California | No data |
| Utah | No data |
| Colorado | No data |
| Nebraska | No data |
| Missouri | No data |
| Kentucky | No data |
| West Virginia | No data |
| Virginia | No data |
| Maryland | No data |
| Delaware | No data |
| Arizona | No data |
| New Mexico | No data |
| Kansas | No data |
| Arkansas | No data |
| Tennessee | No data |
| North Carolina | No data |
| South Carolina | No data |
| District of Columbia | No data |
| Oklahoma | No data |
| Louisiana | No data |
| Mississippi | No data |
| Alabama | No data |
| Georgia | No data |
| Hawaii | No data |
| Texas | No data |
| Florida | No data |
itemized donors
People who gave more than $200
from North Dakota
Of itemized individual dollars
How to read the map
Every state the same size. Darker states gave more itemized money; hatched states had no itemized donors; the outlined state is North Dakota. Gifts of $200 or less carry no address and are left out.
Top donor occupations
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
No occupations reported.
Top committees
PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.
- ARMSTRONG, KELLY$10.0K
- NORTH DAKOTA REPUBLICAN PARTY - DISTRICT 39$3,000
- ND OIL PAC$2,500
- ND SENATE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS (NDSR)$2,000
- ND BEER WHOLESALERS STATE PAC (NDBWA)$1,500
Top employers
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
No employers reported.
Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.
Votes
Kessel voted with the majority of North Dakota Senate Republicans on 81% of party-line votes and missed 4.5% of 998 roll calls. North Dakota Senate on average: 79% party unity, 98.3% attendance. Across all roll calls, Kessel voted against the majority of North Dakota Senate Republicans 43 times.
998 roll calls Kessel could vote on in the ND 2025–26 session, compared with North Dakota Senate. Attendance is the share with a vote recorded. Party unity counts only party-line roll calls, where most Democrats and most Republicans voted on opposite sides, and is the share of those where Kessel voted with the majority of North Dakota Senate Republicans. The count of votes against that majority covers every roll call where the majority took a side.
votes against the majority of North Dakota Senate Republicans
Party unity 81%, North Dakota Senate average 79%, ranks 22nd of 46. 998 roll calls in the ND 2025–26 session.
Attendance and party unity
The thick bar is Kessel, the thin grey bar the North Dakota Senate average. The scale runs from 70% to 100% to show the gap.
Show the data
| Row | Kessel | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance | 95.4% | 98.3% |
| Party unity | 81% | 79% |
What this means, and what it doesn’t
A missed roll call has many causes, from illness to campaigning, so attendance says how often, not why. A vote against the majority can be on procedure as well as substance, and many fall on roll calls where both parties split; the key votes below show the ones that decided something.
Key votes
25 roll calls the lab flagged as key in the ND 2025–26 session
| Party split (yea–nay) | Why it’s key | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 4, 2026 | HB 1628 AN ACT to create and enact a new subdivision to subsection 2 of section 12-60-24, subdivision lll of subsection 3 of section 19-03.1-05, and chapter 51-38 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to criminal history record checks, the scheduling of kratom alkaloid derivatives as a schedule I contr Motion for Final Passage on HB 1628 | Yea | With majority | pass | D 5–0 · R 41–0Democrats 5 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 41 yea, 0 nay | became law |
| Sep 3, 2026 | SB 2407 AN ACT to provide an appropriation to the state historical society for the North Dakota military museum project; to amend and reenact section 55-01-02.1 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to jurisdiction of the heritage center; to repeal subsection 3 of section 6 of chapter 17 of the 2025 Se Motion for Final Passage on SB 2407 | Yea | With majority | pass | D 2–3 · R 37–5Democrats 2 yea, 3 nay; Republicans 37 yea, 5 nay | became law · party crossover |
| Sep 3, 2026 | SB 2405 A BILL for an Act to amend and reenact subsection 1 of section 57-02-08.9, section 57-20-09, and subsection 1 of section 57-55-03 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to the order of application of the primary residence credit and discount for early payment of tax; and to provide an effective Motion for Final Passage on SB 2405 | Yea | With majority | pass | D 4–1 · R 23–19Democrats 4 yea, 1 nay; Republicans 23 yea, 19 nay | party crossover |
| Sep 3, 2026 | SB 2406 A BILL for an Act to create and enact chapter 44-04.1 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to prohibiting agencies from entering nondisclosure agreements concerning data centers and industrial projects; to provide a penalty; to provide an effective date; and to provide an expiration date. Motion for Final Passage on SB 2406 | Nay | With majority | fail | D 5–0 · R 10–32Democrats 5 yea, 0 nay; Republicans 10 yea, 32 nay | party crossover |
| Jan 23, 2026 | HB 1621 AN ACT to amend and reenact subsection 1 of section 15.1-21-01 and section 15.1-21-02 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to requiring the presidential physical fitness test in physical education courses in elementary, middle, and high schools and providing exceptions to the test; and to prov Motion for Final Passage on HB 1621 | Yea | With majority | pass | D 4–1 · R 39–2Democrats 4 yea, 1 nay; Republicans 39 yea, 2 nay | became law |
How key votes are chosen
Automatically: a final-passage or override vote where the measure became law, the margin was under 10%, at least 10% of either party voted against its majority, or the bill was among the 25 most mentioned in officials’ own statements. Up to 25 per window, most recent first; five are shown. Bars show yea on the left, nay on the right, per party.
Votes most often with
The colleagues who voted the same way as Kessel most often
- Dale PattenR920 shared votes97%
- Robert ErbeleR932 shared votes96%
- Brad BekkedahlR874 shared votes95%
- Jeff BartaR941 shared votes95%
- Michelle AxtmanR894 shared votes95%
Votes least often with
The colleagues who voted the same way as Kessel least often
- Jeff MagrumR953 shared votes64%
- Michelle PowersR952 shared votes84%
- Mark EngetR953 shared votes84%
- Tim MathernD952 shared votes85%
- Keith BoehmR953 shared votes86%
How to read the agreement lists
The share of roll calls both members voted on where they voted the same way, among colleagues sharing at least 50 such votes. High agreement with members of the other party is common on routine votes.
Full voting record
ND 2025–26 session, loads in batches
Legislation
Kessel sponsored 8 bills in the ND 2025–26 session; 7 became law. Cosponsored 39 others. 88% of sponsored bills got out of committee (North Dakota Senate average 68%; 7th of 29).
The bills Kessel sponsored and cosponsored in the ND 2025–26 session, from the official bill records, and how far each got: introduced, referred to or acted on in committee, passed one chamber, passed both, became law. A bill counts at every stage it has reached, so the blocks only shrink to the right.
Bills by stage
Counts for the ND 2025–26 session
Show the data
| Role | Introduced | In committee | Passed one chamber | Passed both chambers | Became law |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Cosponsored | 39 | 38 | 29 | 27 | 26 |
How to read the blocks
Ink blocks are bills Kessel sponsored, ochre blocks bills Kessel cosponsored; the figure above each block is the count. Most bills in any legislature never leave committee, so a short staircase is the norm.
of sponsored bills got out of committee
North Dakota Senate average 68%. Ranks 7th of 29.
Cosponsorship partners
Colleagues who most often cosponsor with Kessel, by number of shared bills in the ND 2025–26 session; the square shows their party.
- Dale Patten19
- Keith Kempenich15
- Anna Novak15
- Jared Hagert14
- Mike Brandenburg12
What this means, and what it doesn’t
The score is the share of sponsored bills that a committee reported out or a chamber passed, with at least 5 sponsored bills, ranked within the peer group. Members of the majority party and committee chairs move more bills, so the rank reflects position in the chamber as well as effort. Cosponsorship partners are the five colleagues who share the most of Kessel’s bills; the toggle shows more.
Bill list
Sponsored and cosponsored, with status and policy area; five are shown, the toggle shows the rest
| HCR 3017 | A concurrent resolution recognizing December 6th as annual "Miner's Day" to honor the hard work and dedication of coal miners, whose critical efforts provide reliable and affordable energy to millions of people, fuel economic growth, and support the energy security of North Dakota and the region. | Cosponsor | Jan 30, 2025 | Passed one chamber | Unassigned | Filed with Secretary Of State 03/21 Mar 20, 2025 |
| HCR 3009 | A concurrent resolution urging the federal government to take actions to enact trade policy that supports business and workers of the United States while penalizing global polluters. | Cosponsor | Jan 27, 2025 | In committee | Foreign Trade and International Finance(model) | Filed with Secretary Of State 03/21 Mar 20, 2025 |
| SB 2359 | AN ACT to amend and reenact section 49-02-26 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to qualifications for renewable electricity and recycled energy credits; and to repeal sections 49-02-28, 49-02-29, 49-02-30, 49-02-31, 49-02-32, 49-02-33, and 49-02-34 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating | Cosponsor | Jan 27, 2025 | Became law | Energy(model) | Filed with Secretary Of State 04/03 Apr 4, 2025 |
| SB 2368 | AN ACT to create and enact a new section to chapter 4.1-01 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to a grasslands grazing grant program. | Sponsor | Jan 27, 2025 | Became law | Agriculture and Food(model) | Filed with Secretary Of State 03/25 Mar 26, 2025 |
| SB 2342 | AN ACT to amend and reenact section 4.1-01.1-07 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to a value-added milk processing facility incentive program; and to authorize a Bank of North Dakota line of credit. | Cosponsor | Jan 21, 2025 | Became law | Agriculture and Food(model) | Filed with Secretary Of State 04/30 May 2, 2025 |
Online
A site that changed 1 time in 90 days. Kessel’s official site had 1 page when last crawled on Oct 1, 2026.
The lab crawls Kessel’s official and campaign websites (weekly for Congress, monthly for the states) and keeps every page’s text, so changes can be read later; it also records social accounts and describes the images Kessel posts with a vision model.
Websites
- 1
pages crawled
1changes in 90 days
How to read the counts
“Pages crawled” is the size of the site at the last crawl; “changes in 90 days” counts pages whose text differed from the previous crawl. Sites change for many routine reasons, such as new press releases, so a high count is not by itself notable.
Social accounts
- Emailgkessel@ndlegis.gov
Images Kessel posted
No images from Kessel’s posts have been described.
About the descriptions
Written by a vision model and may be wrong. Open the post to see the original. Five are shown; the toggle shows the rest.
State floor speeches
94 turns, Feb 2, 2023 to May 2, 2025
Floor speeches
Transcribed from chamber video or captions by the lab. They are not classified for kinds of statement.
Methods and sources
How this page was made. Profile built Oct 28, 2026; site last built Oct 28, 2026. Every number on the page is computed from the sources listed here, by the same rules for every official; nothing is written by hand.
The headline
The headline is the measure on which Kessel is most unusual among North Dakota Senate, chosen by one rule for every official of every party. The candidates are the rate of each kind of statement and of extreme labels, party unity, attendance, the small-donor share, the in-state share and total receipts of the latest cycle, the share of sponsored bills that got out of committee, talk-to-bills agreement, and the CSIP score’s place within the party group.
The builder ranks every measure within the same peer group the page compares it with, and writes each official’s percentile: the share of the group below the value, ties counting half, so 0.5 is the median and a value shared by many never ranks first. A measure’s score is how far that percentile sits from the median (0 in the middle, 0.5 at either end), and the highest score leads if it is above 0.25, outside the middle half of the group. Scores within 0.03 of each other are a tie, broken in this order: votes against the party majority, kinds of statement, ideology, roll calls missed, small donations, in-state money, legislation, agreement, extreme labels, receipts.
A measure counts only with at least 200 statements, 100 roll calls or 5 sponsored bills behind it and a peer group of at least 10. Two things never lead: high party unity or attendance, where most members sit, and a high rate of a kind of statement backed by fewer than 10 statements. When nothing qualifies, the headline is a neutral fact instead: statements classified, or years in office. The wording always names the direction (“in the bottom 5% of …”, “votes against the majority of …”).
Identifiers
- Profile id
- 6c9671e4-274f-41cd-b1ba-d6b2dd55ba5e
- Open States
- ocd-person/6c9671e4-274f-41cd-b1ba-d6b2dd55ba5e
Bulk files with the same data for every official:
Freshness of this profile’s data
- What politicians sayOct 27, 20261 days agoMembers of Congress: tweets since 2017; press releases, newsletters and floor speeches since 2022. State legislators: tweets since May 2024. Governors: tweets since January 2025. Labels from an LLM classifier.
- Roll calls (state)Oct 21, 20267 days agoOpen States floor roll calls, 2019 on (none for AK and MO).
- Bills (state)Oct 28, 2026todayOpen States bills and sponsors, 2019 on; stages from roll calls.
- Campaign money (state)no dateState campaign-finance agencies, 2019 on; aggregates only.
- Ideology (CSIP)Oct 25, 20263 days agoCommon-Space Ideal Points (CSIP), current validated run.
- WebsitesOct 25, 20263 days agoWeekly crawls of federal sites since April 2026; monthly state crawls since June 2026.
- State floor speechesOct 21, 20267 days agoState floor speech turns (published transcripts and captions), 2020 on; not LLM-classified.
How the measures work
- What politicians say
- Every post, press release, newsletter and congressional floor speech is read by a language model and marked for personal attacks, policy criticism, policy discussion, bipartisanship and credit claiming. A statement can be in several. Rates are shares of statements in the window. The methods paper.
- Extreme labels
- A statement has an extreme label when it calls a politician, party or policy “far left”, “far right”, “MAGA”, “extreme”, “radical”, “woke”, “fascist” or “communist”. The target is who the label is aimed at.
- Policy areas and agreement
- Statements and bills share 25 Congressional Research Service policy areas (state bills are assigned by a language model). Agreement is 1 − Jensen–Shannon distance between the two distributions, shown with at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
- Ideology (CSIP)
- Common-Space Ideal Points place federal and state officials on one left–right scale, estimated jointly from roll calls, campaign contributions and the text of statements, with standard errors. Only a validated run is shown. The methods paper.
- Campaign money
- Campaigns report by name only donors who give more than $200 in a cycle; smaller gifts are reported as one total. Federal totals and the small-donor share come from the FEC’s financial summaries of each campaign committee. Donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations cover itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift totals, so state figures are itemized only. The lab never publishes donor names.
- Votes and key votes
- Attendance, party unity and the count of votes against the majority of an official’s own party come from roll calls (Voteview for Congress, chamber records for the states). Key votes are final-passage or override votes that became law, were decided by under 10%, saw at least 10% of a party vote against its majority, or concerned one of the 25 bills most mentioned in officials’ statements.
- Peers and ranks
- Comparisons are with the same party, chamber and level (for example House Democrats); state legislators are compared within their state and chamber for votes. Every comparison names its group. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; tied values share the average of their ranks, and the percentile is the share of the group below the value, ties counting half.
America’s Political Pulse · Polarization Research Lab