page_title: Fargo, North Dakota
section_title: Law and government
hierarchical_section_title: Fargo, North Dakota / Law and government
caption_attribution_description: The Cass County Courthouse in w:Fargo, North Dakota
context_page_description: Fargo is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, United States. The most populous city in the state, it accounts for nearly 17% of the state population. According to the 2019 United States Census estimates, its population was 124,662, making it the 223rd-most populous city in the United States. Fargo, along with its twin city of Moorhead, Minnesota, as well as the adjacent cities of West Fargo, North Dakota and Dilworth, Minnesota, form the core of the Fargo-Moorhead, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2019 contained a population of 246,145.
  Founded in 1871 on the Red River of the North floodplain, Fargo is a cultural, retail, health care, educational, and industrial center for eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. The city is also home to North Dakota State University.
context_section_description: Fargo uses the city commission style of local government. Four commissioners and a mayor are elected at large for four year terms. Dr. Tim Mahoney is Fargo's current mayor.  The Fargo City Commission meets every two weeks in its chambers above the Fargo Civic Center. The meetings are broadcast on a Government-access television (GATV) cable channel. In 2017, there was an attempt to recall City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn by a group who argued his constant expressing of concern over refugee resettlement in the city was a xenophobic dog-whistle meant to rile up anti-refugee sentiment in the community. While the group says it did reach the required number of signatures, it ultimately chose not to submit them because they did not know how many signatures would be eliminated in the review process, and Commissioner Piepkorn threatened to obtain the list of signers via FOIA request, which was interpreted as a political threat by the group.
  In 2018, Fargo became the first city in the U.S. to use approval voting for elections.
  Fargo was historically a Republican-leaning area. As recently as the 2004 presidential election, George W. Bush carried Fargo as well as the rest of Cass County with nearly 60 percent of the vote in both areas. Fargo has become more politically diverse and competitive. Since 2008, no Republican presidential candidate has received over 50% of the vote in Cass County. In 2008, Democratic candidate Barack Obama won the majority of votes in Cass County, with a voting percentage very close to the percentage Obama received in the entire nation, while John McCain won the majority of votes in North Dakota. Mitt Romney's winning margin in 2012 over Barack Obama in Cass County was 49.9% to 47% while Donald Trump received 49.3% of votes in 2016 compared to 38.8% against Hillary Clinton and 11.9% for third party candidates. In 2018, Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp achieved a 14-point lead in Eastern North Dakota even though the state as a whole soundly elected Republican Kevin Cramer.
  In state elections, Democrats have tended to do well in the older and established areas of Fargo (Districts 11 and 21) while Republicans have dominated much of the newer areas of the city.
caption: Cass County Courthouse
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