A North Dakota legislative candidate who died of COVID-19 last month won his election seat

• A Republican nominee who died from the coronavirus nearly a month ago has been elected to North Dakota's state legislature.
• David Andahl, who was a 55-year-old cattle rancher, died from the coronavirus on October 5, 2020.
• At the time of his death, state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said that Andahl's name would still remain on the ballot and that the state Republican Party would appoint a replacement.

A Republican candidate who died a month ago from COVID-19 has won a seat on the North Dakota state legislature.

David Andahl took nearly 36 percent of the vote to win one of two seats for state representatives in North Dakota's eighth district. He won alongside GOP candidate Dave Nehring.

Their closest opponent was Democrat Kathrin Volochenko, who polled just over 11 percent of the vote, according to the state vote count.

But Andahl, a cattle rancher and land developer, died on October 5 due to complications from the coronavirus. He was 55 years old.

According to his mother, Andahl had pre-existing health issues and was "very cautious" during the pandemic, The Bismarck Times reported.

She did not specify what underlying health challenges he had.

"He had a lot of feelings for his county … and wanting to make things better, and his heart was in farming. He wanted things better for farmers and the coal industry," Andahl's mother, Pat, said, according to the Bismarck Times.

Following his death, North Dakota election authorities were unsure of how to address a candidate's death so close to Election Day.

However, state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem issued an opinioned letter shortly after, which said that Andahl's name would remain on the ballot and that the local Republican Party would be responsible for filling the vacant seat.

If voters are unhappy with the appointment, they have the option to petition for a special election after the legislative session, the Washington Post reported.

"The votes cast for the deceased candidate should be counted," he wrote, according to the letter. "To disregard the votes cast for a candidate would disenfranchise the voters of the state."

Earlier this year, Andahl won a heated GOP primary against longtime state Rep. Jeff Delzer, who is also chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, who is one of the state's most influential Republicans, supported the cattle rancher, saying last month: "we need more Trump Republicans in the State Legislature," according to the Star Tribune.

North Dakota is a Republican stronghold that has overwhelmingly backed President Trump and other GOP candidates.

The state recorded at least 16 new coronavirus deaths and 1,172 new cases on November 3, according to a state government tracker. Over the past week, there has been an average of 1,151 cases per day.

According to a tracker by Johns Hopkins University, the US has reported more than 9.3 million coronavirus infections and more than 232,000 deaths.

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