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A Grand Forks resident wants to be the head of North Dakota's Democratic Party, but he'll have to take on another Grand Forks politician who is the current chair.
C.T. Marhula announced Tuesday he will apply for the state Democratic chair position.
"We need to hold the GOP accountable to actual facts, not alternative facts," Marhula said in a statement.
The semi-retired project assistant for Experience Works, a nonprofit group that connects senior citizens to local jobs, and former Grand Forks Public Schools board member ran for City Council last year but lost to Sandra Marshall. He also has been a proponent for the preservation of Arbor Park and a midtown library project. He previously held offices with the Democratic Party, according to his statement.
Chairwoman Kylie Oversen, a Democrat from Grand Forks and former state legislator, will seek reappointment to her seat. The chair lost her re-election as a representative for District 42 in November to Republicans Jake Blum and Emily O'Brien.
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"There's a lot of new energy and excitement. We have a lot of new people at the table," Oversen told the Bismarck Tribune, a media partner of Forum News Service.
District 8 Chair Casey Buchmann, also will run for the state chair.
"We need a wholesale change," Buchmann told the Tribune. "We need to start from the ground up. We have no teeth."
He lost a state House race in her district to Jeff Delzer and Vernon Laning.
District 8 covers McLean and Burleigh counties.
The party will meet April 8 at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck to decide who will lead the state's Democrats.
North Dakota Republican Chairman Kelly Armstrong, who will be running for a second two-year term, said that party's reorganization and leadership elections will be held the first weekend in June.
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The Bismarck Tribune contributed to this story.
