The majority of North Dakota's current congressional representatives are Republican. In fact North Dakota’s Governor, Secretary of state, House majority leader and Senate majority leader are all Republicans. The Governor, Ed Schaffer, has developed an agenda for a current reform of North Dakota. The Republican agenda is quite widespread; the most contentious issue has always been tribal ethnic problems and poverty on reservations. Yet the most important general agenda for most North Dakotans is concern for their livelihood, agricultural issues, farming, taxes, disaster relief for flooding and blizzards, education, and health care.

In his state of the state address of 1998, Governor Ed Schaffer outlined a number of North Dakota’s political issues. To begin with Governor Schaffer proposed a bigger tax break, loans, and funds that are committed for disaster relief. This is for farmers and ranchers that were crippled by bad weather to quell their frustrations. The government is investing millions into protection programs such as "flood proofing" properties, building dams along the Red River Valley, and purchasing homes in flood-prone areas and moving the population inward. They also plan to redesign their "floodplain Act" and appeal for more federal money to "disaster proof North Dakota." The Governor will also support funding for environmental programs aimed at improving the quality of water within the state. The Governor has appealed for more research grants for developing disease resistant crops and grassroots activism from the community in support of the agricultural industry lobbying.

The governor also outlined a plan to invest in over $180 million in re-organizing North Dakota’s public school system. Yet, statewide, student enrollment is falling considerably. The Governor blames the dropping enrollment on the fact that over 50,000 people left North Dakota, for various reasons, in the 1980’s. The Republican agenda calls for a re-building of the network ties of the community and purposes a " report Card for North Dakota’s future" as a long-term strategic plan to raise enrollment and standards. Also, the Governor introduced a comprehensive plan to upgrade and revitalize North Dakota’s University system. There will be 33 million dollar increase the states funding of the University as part of it’s six year funding plan.

The Republicans have also planned to provide their first ever "Children’s Health Insurance program." The program will give health care to low income children and provide the basic medical needs including dental and eye care. They will be using private insurance to finance this care to avoid bureaucracy.

The most publicized political issue in North Dakota is of course, the terrible conditions on the Native Americans reservations. Substance abuses, suicide, extremely high unemployment, bad living conditions, and petty crime, plague the thousands of ethnic Native American’s living on these reservations. As Governor Schaffer puts it, "The problems fester and grow from the inside out, and are devastating too many people and communities." The Governor has outlined a plan to raise the standards of living on these reservations, which includes more monitoring and cooperation with the local tribal governments. The Governor was vague regarding the specifics on just how he planned to improve the tense relations between the government and the Native American community leaders. The Republicans also want to see more economic development on these reservations, more government collaboration on housing projects, yet less government protection of the reservations hunting and fishing territory. The Governor believes that those particular regulations " Create conflicts among users and discourage a broader use and enjoyment of these vast and relatively untapped recreation resources." The Republican Party stops short of providing any direct government relief or financing for the reservations.

Finally the Republican Party called on the citizens of North Dakota to be more vigilant in terms of community building and leadership. They stressed the need for a resurgence of public support of their Republican ideals within North Dakota for the next century.