Former Sen. Duane Mutch, 93, of Larimore, died the night of Wednesday, July 17.
Mutch served in the North Dakota Senate for 47 years and was known by some as the most conservative Republican in the Legislature. District 19 first elected Mutch in 1958. He lost re-election in 1976 but regained his seat in 1979. He served until 2006, when his opponent was elected by a narrow margin.
Mutch said in a 2018 interview with the Grand Forks Herald that his conservative and individualistic worldview came from his self-reliance, which he gained when he worked for his father from a young age.
“An individual can do better for himself than anyone else, or he doesn’t have to do it,” said Mutch in the interview.
Mutch said that he “always was a conservative-thinking person” and that it is “all a matter of a person’s opinion what’s too far right.”