Cramer says he's seeking reelection

BISMARCK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota is seeking reelection.

In a video released Thursday, the first-term Republican senator announced his plans. He was first elected in 2018 in a closely watched race against then-Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in North Dakota.

Cramer, a staunch Donald Trump ally, held North Dakota’s single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013-19, and was previously a public utilities regulator from 2003-12 and a state GOP chairman.

Democrat Katrina Christiansen, an assistant engineering professor at the University of Jamestown, is running against Cramer. She ran unsuccessfully in 2022 against Republican Sen. John Hoeven and Rick Becker, a Republican former state lawmaker who ran an independent campaign. Hoeven won a third term.

North Dakota’s Democratic-NPL and Republican parties will hold endorsing conventions for statewide and congressional candidates in April in Fargo.

Heitkamp’s 2012 Senate victory was the last time a Democrat won a statewide election in North Dakota.

Democrats narrowly control the U.S. Senate.