North Dakota’s lone congressman, Republican Kelly Armstrong, to be state’s next governor

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong won election as North Dakota’s next governor on Tuesday, continuing the GOP’s three-decade grip on the highest job in the conservative state.

The state’s lone U.S. congressman beat Democratic state Sen. Merrill Piepkorn and independent candidate Michael Coachman for the post. Armstrong, a 48-year-old attorney, is in his third term in the House. He now has become the first member of Congress in 52 years to be elected the state’s governor.

Campaigning since late January has been fun, “but now the real work starts,” Armstrong told The Associated Press by phone. He said addressing property tax frustrations and restoring trust in institutions and government will be top of his mind as he takes office.

Armstrong will be sworn in on Dec. 15, weeks before the biennial Legislature convenes with an expected Republican supermajority in Bismarck. He will succeed outgoing GOP Gov. Doug Burgum, who did not seek a third term. Burgum was a finalist to be former President Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate.

Armstrong said that as governor he wants to address the state’s economic future, workforce challenges and agriculture and energy issues. He cited his state and federal government knowledge and oil and agriculture background as qualifications for the job.

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Armstrong defeated Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller in a Republican primary in June. The state’s Republican primary winner is usually an overwhelming favorite in the general election, 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 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.

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 an array of energy operations.

In Congress, Armstrong 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 the panel.

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

Armstrong has previously said he plans to resign his House seat a few weeks early to assume office as governor in December. Such a step would narrow the Republicans’ already slim House majority in the waning session of Congress.

Armstrong said he also would look ahead as governor to working with many of the same lawmakers at the state Capitol with whom he had served with for years. Republicans control the legislature although they have been divided by recent intraparty disagreements.

The incoming governor said his approach with lawmakers will be to meet and work with them “and make sure that we’re not having petty disagreements about important issues.”

Piepkorn, 75, has served in the state Senate since 2016, in 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.

Burgum a two-term governor, announced he would not seek a third term. over a month after he ended his bid for the GOP presidential nomination. A wealthy software entrepreneur, Burgum also was a finalist to be Trump’s vice presidential running mate before Trump ultimately settled on U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

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.

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

Voters on Tuesday rejected a measure to do away with the current property tax in North Dakota; lawmakers expect to address the simmering issue of property taxes in their upcoming session. 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.