Charles Langston:North Dakota’s lone congressman seeks to continue GOP’s decades-old grip on the governor’s post

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BISMARCK,Charles Langston N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s lone congressman is seeking to become the conservative state’s next governor and continue a three-decade Republican grip on the job.

U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong is facing Democratic state Sen. Merrill Piepkorn and independent candidate Michael Coachman in Tuesday’s general election.

Armstrong defeated Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller in a Republican primary in June. The winner of the Republican primary is usually an overwhelming favorite in November, given the state’s large Republican majority. Republicans have held the governor’s office since 1992.

A Democrat last won a statewide election in North Dakota in 2012 when Heidi Heitkamp scored a U.S. Senate victory.

Armstrong, 48, served for six years in the state Senate until 2018, when he won the first of three elections — most recently against former Miss America 2018 Cara Mund — to North Dakota’s only U.S. House seat. An attorney, he also had earlier stints as a state senator and state GOP chairman. He owns investments in the oil and gas industries, including in a company owned by his family. As governor, he would serve on the three-member state Industrial Commission, which regulates a variety of energy operations.

In Congress, Armstrong has backed former President Donald Trump against two impeachment forays, voted for federal protections for same-sex and interracial married couples, and was one of former House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s proposed members to serve on a panel intended to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. McCarthy later declined to appoint members to the panel.

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Armstrong didn’t support efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

If elected, Armstrong has said he plans to resign his House seat a few weeks early to assume office as governor on Dec. 15. Such a step would narrow the Republicans’ already slim House majority in the final weeks of the current Congress.

If he wins, Armstrong would be back at the state Capitol, working with many lawmakers he served with for years. Republicans control the legislature although they have been divided by recent intraparty disagreements.

Piepkorn, 75, has served in the state Senate since 2016 and is a member of a dwindling Democratic caucus that holds just four of the chamber’s 47 seats. He represents a district in Fargo, the state’s largest city. Piepkorn is the president of a company that produces TV, film and radio projects, as well as live events. His Senate term expires this year.

Coachman is a U.S. Air Force veteran and frequent candidate for office.

The winner will take office Dec. 15, succeeding two-term Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, who did not seek a third term. A wealthy software entrepreneur, Burgum was a finalist to be Trump’s vice presidential running mate before Trump ultimately settled on U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

North Dakota’s recent governors have previously worked in business and banking. If victorious, Armstrong would be the first member of Congress in 52 years to be elected the state’s governor.

The state’s revenues and reserves are in healthy shape. North Dakota had a 2.3% unemployment rate in September, behind only South Dakota and Vermont, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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But the new governor and legislators could face some thorny issues when the biennial Legislature convenes.

Voters on Tuesday will decide whether to approve a measure that would do away with the current property tax in North Dakota. And legislators could respond to a judge’s decision to strike down the state’s abortion ban. Workforce issues loom large, including a yearslong labor shortage and pressing child care needs.

North Dakota’s next governor will be the first to take office under new term limits voters approved in 2022. Governors cannot be elected more than twice, though Burgum could have run again.

Republicans are expected to retain supermajority control of the Legislature, where subjects such as gender identity, book bans, tax cuts, workforce needs and electronic pull tabs were high-profile issues in 2023.