From collection Candidates
Educator Laura J. Eisenhuth was elected the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for North Dakota in 1892. Eisenhuth was the first woman in the nation to be elected to a statewide office in a statewide election in which women could vote. She was nominated by the Democratic Party and endorsed by the Independent Party, a North Dakota fusion group. She was thirty-three and married. She defeated her Republican male opponent, J. M. Devine, 19,078 to 17,340. She had run for this position in 1890, also supported by Democrats and the Independent Party, but had lost to Republican John Ogden whose party that year swept all statewide races. Eisenhuth had campaigned for the state position in 1890 immediately after ratification of the 1889 North Dakota constitution that permitted women to run for state education positions, and women to vote for such positions. Eisenhuth ran as the incumbent in 1894 but, again, in a sweep of offices by the Republicans, Emma F. Bates defeated her. Eisenhuth campaigned for the office in 1896 with Democratic, Independent and fusion backing, but lost. She made a final bid for re-election in 1900 but lost badly. In addition to Eisenhuth and Bates' victories in North Dakota, Antoinette Peavey won this office in Colorado in 1894 followed by Wyoming educator Estelle Reel in 1896.
Before Eisenhuth ran for the state superintendent's position in November 1890, she been the County Superintendent of Schools in Foster County, elected in June 1888, 1890, and 1892.
Laura Kelly Eisenhuth was born in Canada in 1859. She came with her parents to the United States two years later, settling in Iowa Territory. As a young woman she taught school in Iowa but then moved to Dakota Territory and, in 1887, married Willis Eisenhuth. In addition to teaching and holding public office, Eisenhuth was known for the teacher workshops, or "institutes" that she ran. She and her husband also started a newspaper, The Citizen. She was widowed in 1902 and re-married in 1907 to Ludwig Alming, with whom she moved to Oregon. She had no children.
