The executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party has resigned a week into the job after a media outlet publicized some of his online comments.

Only a week into the job, the North Dakota Republican Party’s executive director has resigned after a media outlet publicized some of his social media posts that were demeaning toward women and dismissed concerns raised by Black people about racism.

The party announced the resignation Monday of Dave Roetman, who previously worked for the South Dakota GOP. He quit seven days after being hired and a few days after Forum News Service reported about his posts and replies on X, formerly known as Twitter. The posts dated from just over a year ago to as recently as this month.

Many of the posts and replies were about political issues. But they also included crass comments, such as replying “she seems nice” to several posts of women in revealing clothing, and responding unfavorably to a woman in a plus-sized swimsuit. In another reply, he speculated about whether women should be addressed as “broads” or “dames,” adding that debates about gender and language are why “men are distancing themselves from women professionally.”

  • Stalinwolf
    344·
    8 months ago

    My wife and I strayed through North Dakota once on our way back to Canada. It was during a really intense heat wave several years back, so the trip through was nothing but tall grass and heat ripples stretching on and on toward patches of dense trees. This continued exactly the same way throughout the entirety of the state. There was little to no evidence of civilization anywhere. At one point during our search for gas we came across a tiny town of maybe twenty people who were setting up for quite the party at the general store/town hall/only functional building around. They seemed bewildered to see outsiders but were kind enough to explain that half of the signs pointing toward the nearest gas station no longer led to operational gas stations. This may have saved our lives as we pressed ever onward, now equipped with the knowledge of which signs were real.

    Eventually we even collided with a duck (purely by accident) and it ejected its anus (the entire organ, not just the contents) onto the grill of our vehicle where it remained as a small gift for untold miles. Then we were faced with our final dilemma; spending the night in the middle of North Dakota, or finding lodging on a rather unfriendly reservation in Montana, so we decided to just cross the border and take our chances in Saskatchewan. I really couldn’t tell you if that played out any better, but we did make it home eventually.