Career
Law &Advocacy
Prior to her public service career,Sarah Vogel served as special assistant [4] to the Secretary of the Treasury in Washington DC. Returning to her home state of North Dakota,she represented family farmers during the 1980s farm crisis,most significantly as lead attorney in Coleman v. Block, [5] a national class action case filed on behalf of 240,000 farmers, [6] which resulted in an injunction prohibiting USDA from foreclosing on 16,000 farm families. [2] Her work on the case was featured in Life Magazine [7] [8] and later became the basis of the 1984 movie Country, [2] starring Jessica Lange,earning the actress an Academy Award nomination. [9]
After retiring as Agriculture Commissioner,Vogel returned to private practice [10] at Wheeler Wolf Firm and later founded the Sarah Vogel Law Partners in Bismarck,North Dakota,where she practiced law with three other attorneys. Vogel was co-counsel Keepseagle vs. Vilsack, [11] a national class-action lawsuit which resulted in a $680 million settlement for Native American farmers affected by the USDA's discriminatory lending practices. [1] In 2011,Vogel went into solo law practice. Sarah Vogel Law Partners is now known as Braaten Law Office. [12]
Public service
Vogel became an assistant attorney general [13] in 1985. In 1986,she was named one of 20 young attorneys making a difference in the country [2] by the American Bar Association. In 1988,she was elected North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture,becoming the first woman in the U.S. to be elected for the position. In 1992 she was re-elected,serving through 1997. In her role as North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture,she also served on the state's Industrial Commission, [14] Water Commission, [15] and Agricultural Products Utilization Commission. [16] With Senator Kent Conrad,she co-founded Marketplace of Ideas, [17] becoming the nation's largest rural development program conference at the time. Vogel advocated for farmer-owned cooperatives. She was succeeded by Roger Johnson. [1]
In 1996,Vogel ran for a seat on the North Dakota Supreme Court,a bid that was ultimately unsuccessful. [1]
Writing
Continuing her advocacy for family farmers,in 2016 she co-wrote an op-ed [18] with musician Willie Nelson against North Dakota Measure 1,which would have furthered corporate farming in the state. The measure did not pass. [19]
The Coleman v Block case is the subject of Vogel's first book The Farmer's Lawyer,published by Bloomsbury Publishers in 2021. [20]
North Dakota is a landlocked U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south, and Montana to the west. North Dakota is part of the Great Plains region, characterized by broad prairies, steppe, temperate savanna, badlands, and farmland. North Dakota is the 19th largest state, but with a population of less than 780,000, it is the 4th least populous and 4th most sparsely populated. The state capital is Bismarck while the most populous city is Fargo, which accounts for nearly a fifth of the state's population; both cities are among the fastest-growing in the U.S., although half of all residents live in rural areas.
Bismarck is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the state's second-most populous city, after Fargo. The population was 73,622 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 75,092 in 2023, while its metropolitan population was 133,626. In 2020, Forbes magazine ranked Bismarck as the seventh fastest-growing small city in the United States.
Mandan is a city on the eastern border of Morton County and the eighth-most populous city in North Dakota. Founded in 1879 on the west side of the upper Missouri River, it was designated in 1881 as the county seat of Morton County. The population was 24,206 at the 2020 census. Across the Missouri River from Bismarck, Mandan is a core city of the Bismarck–Mandan Metropolitan Statistical Area.
William "Wild Bill" Langer was an American lawyer and politician from North Dakota, where he was an infamous character, bouncing back from a scandal that forced him out of the governor's office and into multiple trials. He was the 17th and 21st governor of North Dakota from 1932 to 1934 and from 1937 to 1939.
The Bank of North Dakota (BND) is a state-owned, state-run financial institution based in Bismarck, North Dakota. It is the only government-owned general-service bank in the United States. It is the legal depository for all state funds in North Dakota, and uses these deposits to fund development, agriculture, and small businesses.
Roger Johnson is past president of the National Farmers Union, and the immediate past North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party. As of 2021, he is the most recent statewide elected Democrat to serve in the North Dakota state government.
The 2012 United States Senate election in North Dakota took place on November 6, 2012, concurrently with the 2012 U.S. presidential election, other United States Senate elections, United States House of Representatives elections, and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic-NPL Senator Kent Conrad decided to retire instead of running for reelection to a fifth term.
Robert L. Vogel was an American lawyer and judge from North Dakota. He served as U.S. Attorney for the District of North Dakota and an associate justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court. Robert was one of five sons of Frank A. Vogel and Louella Vogel. His father, who served as the North Dakota Tax Commissioner, Highway Commissioner and manager of the Bank of North Dakota, was also a leader of the Nonpartisan League and a close confidant of Gov. William Langer.
Andrew Miller was the North Dakota Attorney General from 1909 to 1914, and later served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of North Dakota on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, with primary elections being held on June 8, 2010.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of North Dakota on November 4, 2014. Five of North Dakota's executive officers were up for election as well as the state's at-large seat in the United States House of Representatives. Primary elections were held on June 10, 2014.
The 2016 North Dakota gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2016, to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. This would have been the first time North Dakotans selected a governor under new voter ID requirements, in which a student ID was insufficient identification to vote, but a court ruling in August 2016 struck the down the provision; the election was held under the 2013 rules.
North Dakota held two statewide elections in 2018: a primary election on Tuesday, June 12, and a general election on Tuesday, November 6. In addition, each township elected officers on Tuesday, March 20, and each school district held their elections on a date of their choosing between April 1 and June 30.
Julie Fedorchak is an American politician who is a member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission and a candidate for the United States Congress. She was appointed to the commission by Governor Jack Dalrymple in December 2012 and easily won reelection to that position three times: to a two-year term in 2014, to a six-year term in 2016, and to another six-year term in 2022.
Cara D. Mund is an American attorney and former beauty pageant titleholder from Bismarck, North Dakota. In June 2017, she was crowned Miss North Dakota 2017. On September 10, 2017, she was crowned Miss America 2018 in Atlantic City and became the first contestant from North Dakota to win the competition.
The North Dakota Industrial Commission is the body that oversees the management of several separate programs and resources, including the Bank of North Dakota, North Dakota Mill and Elevator, and the Department of Mineral Resources. By law, it has three members: the Attorney General, the Agriculture Commissioner, and the Governor, who acts as chair.
The 2024 United States Senate election in North Dakota will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of North Dakota. Incumbent Republican Senator Kevin Cramer was first elected in 2018 and is seeking a second term in office. Primary elections took place on June 11, 2024.
Shannon Roers Jones is an American attorney and politician. She served in the North Dakota House of Representatives from the 46th district since December 1, 2016. She was the North Dakota House Republican Caucus Chairperson from 2019 to 2021.
Janie Simms Hipp is an agriculture and food lawyer, policy expert, and the founder of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas, founder of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Office of Tribal Relations in the Office of the Secretary, founding Executive Director of the Native American Agriculture Fund,. Hipp's work focuses on the intersection of Indian law and agriculture and food law. She is currently the CEO/President of Native Agriculture Financial Services since August 2023.
Minnie Jean Nielson was an American educator and literacy activist from North Dakota. She served as the eleventh North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1919 to 1926.
