BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Stepping out of his muddy pickup with a claw hammer hanging from his hip, Patrick Hart admits he probably doesn’t look the part of the head of North Dakota’s Democratic party.

“People ask, ’How could you end up a Democrat?” Hart, a Bismarck contractor and former oil field worker, said. “I tell them, ‘How could I not be?’"

As Democrats prepare to open their state convention this week in Minot, Hart is pondering how to restore relevancy to a party that has dwindled to almost nothing in the Legislature, and that struggles to find candidates in a state dominated by conservatives.

“I grew up in a small town where people believe in helping each other,” said Hart, a native of Pembina in northeastern North Dakota. “The values of rural America are Democrats’ values, but we don’t see that being supported at the ballot box.”

The convention runs through Sunday; warmup activities get underway Thursday. Endorsements begin on Friday.

But days from the convention, Democrats had no announced candidates for attorney general, secretary of state, agriculture commissioner, tax commissioner and for two seats on the Public Service Commission, which regulates gas and electric utilities, coal mining, land reclamation, grain elevators and auctioneers.

Democrats also are holding a closed training session for legislative candidates in conjunction with their convention

Hart, who was chosen last year to lead the party, said he knows that “having a ‘D’ by your name can be a death sentence” for a candidate. And conservatives have become so dominant that liberals can be afraid to stand apart, fearful of getting the cold shoulder in their communities, he said.

Hart is hoping to reverse that, possibly starting with short videos posted to social media in which people talk about why they are Democrats.

“We’re just looking for people to say one line or two of what makes them a Democrat,” he said. “We need to tell these stories.”

The party also needs to effectively articulate policy differences with the GOP, he said. And at times, it needs to distance itself from the national Democratic Party on issues that are nonstarters with most North Dakotans, such as defunding police and gun control, he said.

“Our brand of blue can differ quite a bit from the national party,” he said. “We can’t let other people define us.”

Former U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the last Democrat from the state to serve in Congress, made the same point in an interview last month with The Associated Press. Heitkamp, who lost her re-election bid in 2018 to Kevin Cramer and now heads the One Country Project, which is focused on engaging rural voters, said Democrats are hurting themselves by not speaking out more forcefully against far-left positions that alienate rural voters.

Bismarck Sen. Erin Oban, the state's westernmost Democratic lawmaker, won her seat in a GOP stronghold in 2014 by going door-to-door and asking people for their vote.

Oban, who is not seeking another term, said she wanted people to see her for who she was, and not her party affiliation. She said it's a tactic that works well in North Dakota, regardless of party affiliation.

“I had to get them to see me for who I am, and if they thought I was someone they could trust,” she said.

Democrats haven’t had a majority in the state House or Senate or held the governor’s office since the early 1990s. Democrats held all three of North Dakota's seats in Congress from 1987 to 2011, but that ended long ago, and the GOP now holds them all.

In the state Legislature, Republicans have 80 House seats to Democrats’ 14, and a 40-7 edge in the Senate. All but one Democrat is up for re-election this year.

North Dakota hasn’t backed a Democratic U.S. presidential candidate since the 1960s.