Robert Harms

WILLISTON – Robert Harms has announced he is running for the District 2 state Senate seat as a Republican in the June 11 primary.

Property tax reform, lower taxes, less government spending, appropriate use of the Legacy Fund and responsible development of North Dakota’s natural and financial resources are the issues that most concern Harms.

“North Dakota is a wonderful place to live with great opportunities. We have to be smart on how we use our immense wealth of natural resources and finances available to us,” Harms said.

District 2 Republicans have endorsed Mark Enget, Powers Lake, who retired from a career in the energy industry that took him around the world. District 2 encompasses a large part of rural, northwestern North Dakota as well as parts of north Williston and a number of smaller communities..

A lifelong resident of North Dakota, Harms was born and raised in Tioga. He practiced law in Williston and Tioga until 1992, when he went to work for Govs. Ed Schafer and John Hoeven as governor’s counsel, a position he held for 11 years.

Harms and his wife, Cherie, have maintained a home east of Williston since 1987. Since 2008, they have been partners in a mining company in Williston, where Cherie has worked full time. They also had been instrumental in starting North Star Caviar, which harvests roe from paddlefish taken near the Yellowstone and Missouri River confluence.

Harms retired in December 2021. Until then, he had worked in every legislative session since 1993.

While working for the State of North Dakota, Harms was senior policy adviser on natural resources, including energy, land and water issues. He read every legislative bill to come before the governor and wrote numerous veto messages on behalf of the chief executive. As governor’s counsel he was instrumental in getting U.S. Highway 2 converted to four-lane, beginning in 1996 prior to the Bakken oil activity.

He was the lead staff on a Clean Air Act dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency, which kept two coal plants operating in North Dakota. He led the governor’s office efforts on the Missouri River Management Plan with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service Resource Management Plan regarding the 1 million acres of National Grasslands.

Harms left the governor’s office in 2003 and formed The Harms Group, a government relations and public affairs consulting firm. He represented a variety of companies, including healthcare, communications and many aspects of the oil development in western North Dakota.

Harms has been a lifelong member of the North Dakota Republican Party, a political activist and an advocate for northwestern North Dakota. His volunteer activities include working on the 1992 campaign of Shafer for governor and the 2000 campaign for Hoeven for governor and his kitchen cabinet; chairman of the 2006 Citizens for Responsible Government, which stopped a $35 million sales tax increase; Tea Party speaker at several state events in 2008-09; led initiated measure effort to lower state income tax in 2008; 2009-10 instructor for “We The People,” a Constitution program authorized by Congress; 2010 board member with N.D. Taxpayer’s Association; 2010 founding member of N.D. Legacy Fund measure committee; 2009-2013 N.D. Republican Party treasurer; 2013-2015 N.D. Republican Party chairman; and 2023-2024 chairman of the N.D. Republican Presidential Caucus.