Kayla Whitaker had been meaning to donate to Barack Obama's campaign for a while, so when she received an e-mail from the campaign with the note that anyone who donated $5 or more would be eligible to win a chance to meet Obama at the Democratic National Convention, she went for it.
 
"And, it's not like I was going to get picked," Whitaker said. "I mean, Fargo, North Dakota... nobody cares, nobody even knows where Fargo is. Everyone thinks we're in Canada."
 
Despite thinking she had no chance of winning, she donated $15. A month later, the campaign called to let her know that she had been one of ten young people chosen to be "Backstage With Barack" before he accepts the presidential nomination. She and a guest will be flown to Denver on August 26, and stay until the convention ends.
 
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Every year, high school seniors across the country have to make a major decision - go away to college, or stay in their home state.
 
Josh Christman, a recent graduate of Century High School in Bismarck, ND, is leaving the state to attend Parsons The New School for Design in New York. While that wasn't the only school he applied to, Christman, 18, said he knew he wanted to get out of North Dakota.
 
"I made a decision before I applied to any schools not to apply to any in North Dakota, because I didn't want to stay here," he said. "I wanted to get out and experience something else."
 
But for other young people in the state, the decision to stay close to home after graduation is an equally easy one.
 
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Josh Davis, 31, and his partner, Craig Comes, 29, have been together for about 11 months. They each grew up on ranches just over the border in South Dakota. Now, they divide their time between working on Comes' family ranch in Camp Crook, SD, and Bowman, ND, where Comes is a volunteer EMT. 

Davis has been out for almost 10 years, and Comes came out in 2006.

"I was scared to death to tell my family, because we're kind of a small-town, Christian people," he said. "Divorce is just a huge sin, so I couldn't imagine coming out to them."

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In most states, a festival celebrating homosexuality wouldn't draw a lot of attention.
 
But for a conservative, rural state like North Dakota, it's a little different.
 
For the past five years, Dakota Outright, a GLBT community group, has sponsored Bismarck PRIDE Fest, a weekend outdoor festival for members of the gay and lesbian community and their supporters to celebrate being out in North Dakota.
 
"It's a place for people to come together and get to know each other and realize that even in the outer reaches of North Dakota, you don't have to be isolated," said Dan Tokach, one of the founders of Dakota Outright, and an organizer of the event. "That we're all here, and you're not alone."

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In the first week that Barack Obama's campaign office has been officially open in North Dakota, workers have been spending most of their time making cold calls and trying to gauge the amount of support the Democratic party has in the state. 

 
According to the latest Rasmussen report, (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/north_dakota/election_2008_north_dakota_presidential_election), the contest is close, with John McCain having a one-percent lead over Obama in North Dakota. 

Campaign workers and volunteers such as Ethan Hoepfner, are hoping to change that. They want to see North Dakota, a state that has given its three electoral votes to a Republican candidate every election since 1964, turn Blue. 

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