Policy discussion
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Aug 19, 2026 · Posts on X (state legislators) · policy discussion; Commerce; Energy · Source

CSIP score +0.29 (approximate range +0.25 to +0.34, which understates the uncertainty); negative is left of the scale’s centre, positive right. From 10 donors and 599 roll calls.
CSIP places every official on one left–right scale estimated from roll-call votes, campaign donations and the text of statements; 0 is the centre of the scale, not a definition of moderate. The share says where Mathern sits among State Senate Democrats, not how far from the centre.
6 measures against State Senate Democrats. The policy areas Mathern talks about and legislates on agree at 0.39 on a 0–1 scale, in the bottom tenth of State Senate Democrats. 31% of the 13 bills Mathern sponsored got out of committee, in the bottom quarter of the North Dakota Senate.
The measures on which Mathern sits furthest from the middle of State Senate Democrats, each against the same group, with the CSIP score when there is one. Every number is explained in its own section below.
CSIP ideology
More conservative than 99% of State Senate Democrats · ± 0.05
Party unity
North Dakota Senate average 79% · ranks 1st of 46 · 53 votes against the majority of North Dakota Senate Democrats
Talk-to-bills agreement
State Senate Democrats average 0.56 · ranks 214th of 228
Out of committee
North Dakota Senate average 68% · ranks 26th of 29
Itemized, 2026
State Senate Democrats’ median $55.5K · ranks 601st of 746
Attendance
North Dakota Senate average 98.3% · ranks 16th of 46 · 998 roll calls
Peer group: State Senate Democrats. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; the thick bar is Mathern, the thin grey bar the peer average. The headline is the measure on which Mathern is most unusual among peers (Methods, §08).
Mathern claims credit less than 97% of State Senate Democrats. Credit claiming in 0% of 51 statements, against 16% for the average State Senate Democrat; 321st of 329.
An AI model reads each of Mathern’s 51 statements in the ND 2025–26 session (51 posts on X) and marks the kinds of statement it contains: a personal attack, criticism of a policy, discussion of policy, bipartisanship, credit claiming, and extreme labels. A statement can carry several. Every rate is compared with the average for State Senate Democrats and ranked among them.
Share of statements carrying each label, the ND 2025–26 session
| Row | Mathern | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Policy discussion | 47% | 43% |
| Policy criticism | 16% | 10% |
| Bipartisanship | 4% | 3% |
| Personal attacks | 0% | 2% |
| Credit claiming | 0% | 16% |
statements classified
51 posts on X.
| Part | Value |
|---|---|
| posts on X | 51 |
The thick bar is Mathern; the thin grey bar is the average State Senate Democrats. A longer thick bar means Mathern does this more than peers. Rank 1 is the highest rate in the group.
Mathern used no extreme labels in 51 statements. The peer average is 0.8%.
No extreme labels in this window.
Targets named alongside an extreme label, by number of statements
No targets recorded.
Calls a politician, a party or a policy “far left”, “far right”, “MAGA”, “extreme”, “radical”, “woke”, “fascist” or “communist”. The target is who or what the label was aimed at. The lists show the five most used labels and targets; the toggle shows the rest.
Share of statements per month, the ND 2025–26 session
No month in this window has 10 or more statements, too few to chart month by month.
Each row is one kind of statement; each cell is a month, shaded against that row’s own peak (darker = closer to the peak), with the peak and the latest value written at the right. The top row counts statements. The strip covers every month of the ND 2025–26 session, the same span as the rates above, including months with no statements. A month with fewer than 10 statements is hatched, not shaded: one or two posts would swing its rate to 0% or 100%. 22 months are hatched here; 4 of them have no statements.
Real statements from the classifier’s example set, with the labels it assigned
Policy discussion
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Aug 19, 2026 · Posts on X (state legislators) · policy discussion; Commerce; Energy · Source
Bipartisanship
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Jul 1, 2026 · Posts on X (state legislators) · policy criticism; policy discussion; bipartisanship; Public Lands and Natural Resources · Source
Policy criticism
The text of this post is on X; follow the source link to read it.
Sep 5, 2026 · Posts on X (state legislators) · policy criticism; policy discussion; Government Operations and Politics; Science, Technology, Communications · Source
Up to five recent statements in each category
Overtly questions a named person’s character, integrity or loyalty, or calls them names. Criticising a record or a policy does not count.
No statements in this category in this window.
Newest first, the ND 2025–26 session
Five statements at a time, newest first; filters apply to the statements loaded so far. Export saves the statements that match. Sources: 51 posts on X.
Government Operations and Politics is what Mathern talks about most: 21% of policy statements, above the peer share. Talk and legislation agree at 0.39 on a 0–1 scale (State Senate Democrats average 0.56; 214th of 228).
Each policy statement is tagged by the AI model with one or more of 25 policy areas from the Congressional Research Service list, so the shares say what Mathern talks about. The bills Mathern sponsors and cosponsors carry the same areas, so the two can be compared.
Share of policy statements by area, the ND 2025–26 session
| Row | Mathern | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Government Operations and Politics | 21% | 14% |
| Crime and Law Enforcement | 17% | 8% |
| Agriculture and Food | 13% | 5% |
| Education | 13% | 15% |
| Environmental Protection | 13% | 4% |
The thick bar is the share of Mathern’s policy statements in an area; the thin grey bar is the average share for State Senate Democrats. A statement counts once in each of its areas, so shares can add to more than 100%. The five largest areas are shown; the toggle shows the rest.
Left: share of statements by policy area. Right: share of bills. Areas in order of their share of statements; both sides run from 0 to 36%. Grey ticks are the State Senate Democrats averages.
| Area | Talks about | State Senate Democrats, talks about | Legislates on | State Senate Democrats, legislates on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government Operations and Politics | 21% | 14% | 16% | 8% |
| Crime and Law Enforcement | 17% | 8% | 1% | 9% |
| Agriculture and Food | 13% | 5% | 6% | 3% |
| Education | 13% | 15% | 8% | 9% |
| Environmental Protection | 13% | 4% | 1% | 3% |
talk-to-bills agreement, 0 to 1
State Senate Democrats average 0.56. Ranks 214th of 228.
Agreement is 1 minus the distance between the two distributions (Jensen–Shannon): 1 means Mathern legislates on exactly the areas Mathern talks about, in the same proportions; 0 means no overlap. It does not say whether the bills match the positions in the statements, only the subjects. Bills Mathern sponsored count fully, cosponsored bills a quarter. Shown with at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
Mathern sits at +0.29 on the CSIP scale, right of 0, more conservative than 99% of State Senate Democrats. Approximate range +0.25 to +0.34, which understates the uncertainty; from 10 donors and 599 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 +0.25 to +0.34. From 10 donors and 599 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.
The outlined dot is Mathern, 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 Mathern’s groups. 0 is the centre of the scale, not “moderate” by definition.
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.
Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale
| Group | Officials | Median | Share left of Mathern |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Senate Democrats | 825 | −0.7 | 99% |
| North Dakota Senate | 47 | +0.1 | 81% |
| All State Senate | 1909 | +0.1 | 65% |
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 Mathern 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 Mathern.
Mathern reported $10.8K in the 2026 cycle, 19% of the State Senate Democrats’ median of $55.5K. State filings report no small-donation total. 95% 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 6 itemized donors. State Senate Democrats’ median $55.5K.
Each square is one percent of itemized contributions in the 2026 cycle.
| Source | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals (itemized) | $6,424 | 59.6% |
| PACs and other committees | $4,350 | 40.4% |
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.
Itemized contributions, 2022 to 2026. The grey line is the State Senate Democrats’ median for 2026.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2022 cycle | $6,450 |
| 2026 cycle | $10.8K |
Itemized contributions by donor state. 95% came from North Dakota.
State filings report no total for small gifts.
Not reported in state filings.
Individuals who gave more than $200, by donor state
| State | Value |
|---|---|
| North Dakota | $6,113 |
| Florida | $312 |
| 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 |
| Iowa | 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 |
itemized donors
People who gave more than $200
from North Dakota
Of itemized individual dollars
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.
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
No occupations reported.
PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.
Itemized, 2026 cycle.
No employers reported.
Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.
Mathern voted with the majority of North Dakota Senate Democrats on 90.7% of party-line votes and missed 0.1% of 998 roll calls. North Dakota Senate on average: 79% party unity, 98.3% attendance. Across all roll calls, Mathern voted against the majority of North Dakota Senate Democrats 53 times.
998 roll calls Mathern 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 Mathern voted with the majority of North Dakota Senate Democrats. 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 Democrats
Party unity 90.7%, North Dakota Senate average 79%, ranks 1st of 46. 998 roll calls in the ND 2025–26 session.
The thick bar is Mathern, the thin grey bar the North Dakota Senate average. The scale runs from 70% to 100% to show the gap.
| Row | Mathern | Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance | 99.9% | 98.3% |
| Party unity | 90.7% | 79% |
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.
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 | Nay | 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 | Yea | 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 |
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.
The colleagues who voted the same way as Mathern most often
The colleagues who voted the same way as Mathern least often
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.
ND 2025–26 session, loads in batches
Mathern sponsored 13 bills in the ND 2025–26 session; 1 became law. Cosponsored 33 others. 31% of sponsored bills got out of committee (North Dakota Senate average 68%; 26th of 29).
The bills Mathern 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.
Counts for the ND 2025–26 session
| Role | Introduced | In committee | Passed one chamber | Passed both chambers | Became law |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored | 13 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Cosponsored | 33 | 33 | 23 | 14 | 13 |
Ink blocks are bills Mathern sponsored, ochre blocks bills Mathern 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 26th of 29.
Colleagues who most often cosponsor with Mathern, by number of shared bills in the ND 2025–26 session; the square shows their party.
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 Mathern’s bills; the toggle shows more.
Sponsored and cosponsored, with status and policy area; five are shown, the toggle shows the rest
| 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. | Sponsor | Sep 2, 2026 | In committee | Government Operations and Politics(model) | Second reading, failed to pass, yeas 15 nays 32 Sep 3, 2026 |
| HCR 3036 | A concurrent resolution to amend and reenact sections 7 and 13 of article IV of the Constitution of North Dakota, relating to sessions of the legislative assembly; and to provide an effective date. | Cosponsor | Feb 25, 2025 | In committee | Government Operations and Politics(model) | Second reading, failed to adopt yeas 43 nays 49 Mar 17, 2025 |
| SCR 4024 | A concurrent resolution directing the Legislative Management to consider studying using dedicated funds in the Capitol building fund to build a legislative office building. | Sponsor | Feb 6, 2025 | Passed one chamber | Government Operations and Politics(model) | Filed with Secretary Of State 03/21 Mar 21, 2025 |
| SCR 4017 | A concurrent resolution directing the Legislative Management to consider studying the detrimental impacts of pornography. | Cosponsor | Jan 30, 2025 | Passed one chamber | Health(model) | Filed with Secretary Of State 04/28 Apr 28, 2025 |
| SB 2370 | AN ACT to provide for a legislative management study regarding prescription drug transparency reporting under the federal drug discount program. | Cosponsor | Jan 27, 2025 | Became law | Health(model) | Filed with Secretary Of State 05/02 Jun 11, 2025 |
A site that changed 1 time in 90 days. Mathern’s official site had 1 page when last crawled on Oct 1, 2026.
The lab crawls Mathern’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 Mathern posts with a vision model.
pages crawled
changes in 90 days
“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.
No images from Mathern’s posts have been described.
Written by a vision model and may be wrong. Open the post to see the original. Five are shown; the toggle shows the rest.
303 turns, Jan 12, 2021 to Sep 3, 2026
Transcribed from chamber video or captions by the lab. They are not classified for kinds of statement.
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 is the measure on which Mathern is most unusual among State Senate Democrats, 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 …”).
Bulk files with the same data for every official:
America’s Political Pulse · Polarization Research Lab