North Dakota is a sparsely population (~ 667,000) state located exactly in the north central, borders with Canada, of the US.  Primarily settled by German/Scandinavian immigrants it has experienced a steady decline in population due to young, educated, people leaving to find jobs.  The remaining population is white, very religious, rural, and dependent on resource extraction - agriculture, mining, & so on.

The politics are mixed.  ND has been reliable GOP regarding Presidential voting (Bush carried it 67% in '04) but the state has Democratic Senators.

With few Electoral College votes (3?, damnifno) North Dakota isn't important in and of itself but it can be looked at as a 'sample' of how people in the rural, inter-Mountain West are breaking.