Helene Neville speaks to delegates at the Democratic-NPL state convention on March 27, 2026, in Bismarck. (Photo by Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)
A newcomer to North Dakota politics is running for the state’s sole U.S. House seat.
Helene Neville sought the endorsement of the Democratic-NPL Party, but finished third, leading her to file for office as an independent.
“I’m just running to serve,” Neville said in an interview with the North Dakota Monitor. “This is one of the most consequential Congress’ in history, and we better get it right this time.”
Neville, a Philadelphia native who has never sought elected office before, said she watched her mother run for local office in Pennsylvania when she was younger. Even though her mother did not win, Neville said it showed her the importance of public service.
Now living in Jamestown, Neville is a former travel nurse and worked as a public health consultant in eight states. She garnered national media attention after spending years running solo across every state in the country and parts of Mexico, Canada and Puerto Rico, traveling nearly 17,000 miles on foot to promote healthy living.
“I’ve always wanted to run for office my entire adult life,” she said. “Most of the running around the country was because I wanted to get a good landscape of who our people are, what our people are going through and what they want.”
In 2020, she moved to Bismarck and worked at a local hospital before collapsing during a shift. She was diagnosed with Stage IV non-Hodgkin lymphoma and celebrated her five years of remission in May. She is the author of multiple books.
Affordability
Neville said the affordability crisis makes it difficult to manage a family budget with costs continuing to rise.
Price increases could have been addressed by Congress, Neville said, but its members have become complacent. She said she supports term limits for members of Congress and wants to prohibit stock trading by members of the federal government to reign in what she sees as corruption.
Neville said President Donald Trump has lied about who is paying for his import tariffs, and added that Canada may never resume normal trade with the U.S. based on how the country is being treated.
“The cost was pushed back to us,” Neville said. “We are paying for Trump’s mistake and corporations’ greed.”
She said healthcare affordability concerns could be addressed by breaking up the health insurance and pharmaceutical monopolies, which would lead to lower costs.
She said she is opposed to cuts to earned benefit programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
“We’re not spending enough on these people,” Neville said.
Artificial intelligence
Neville said artificial intelligence companies should be held responsible for the products they create. Criminal charges and civil cases should not be off the table, if their products break the law or cause damages, Neville said.
She also took issue with secrecy around the AI companies and the data centers providing them with data.
“You can’t run something that sophisticated, that advanced, without saying what your plan is and telling everybody what it is,” she said. An international agreement is needed for AI products since those products are being used worldwide, she added.
Election security
Neville said federal elected officials should “stay the hell out” of elections in every state.
“I think they are using fear tactics because we already have those things in place,” Neville said.
Neville is running against Republican incumbent Julie Fedorchak, Democratic-NPL candidate Trygve Hammer and frequent candidate Charles Tuttle, who also is running as an independent.
Comments