Rep. Kelly Armstrong has won the Republican nomination for governor of North Dakota, the Associated Press reported Tuesday, defeating the state's Lt. Governor, Tammy Miller, and positioning herself as the front-runner in the general election.
The primary featured two Republicans who are well known in the state and share many policy commonalities: Armstrong, a lawyer and former state Republican Party chairman, was elected to Congress in 2018 to represent North Dakota's only congressional district, and Miller, an accountant and businessman who served as chief operating officer for Gov. Doug Burgum before being appointed lieutenant governor last year.
During the campaign, both candidates emphasized their support for former President Donald J. Trump and sought to be, as one debate moderator put it, “more conservative than the other.” Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Miller each called for cracking down on illegal immigration and opposing President Biden's policies.
This year's gubernatorial race was not solidified until relatively late in the election cycle, as Republicans waited to see if Burgum would seek a third term. A pro-business Republican, Burgum has at times antagonized the right wing of his party on transgender issues. After failing to win support in the Republican presidential primary, Burgum announced in January that he would not seek another four-year term as governor.
Burgum has been mentioned by some as a possible vice presidential candidate for Trump, but in recent months has emerged as one of the former president's more vocal supporters.
During his campaign for governor, Armstrong argued that his years in the legislature and the relationships he had built would help him defend North Dakota's interests, while Miller sought to present himself as a political outsider whose business experience would shape his approach to governing.
The Republican candidate will face off in November against state Sen. Merrill Piepkorn, a Democrat from Fargo who was unopposed in the party's primary.
While North Dakota voters have been lenient toward Democrats in the past (moderate Democrat Heidi Heitkamp won the state's Senate election in 2012), Republicans have dominated in recent state elections: Trump won the state by 33 percentage points four years ago, and Burgum was re-elected by an even larger margin.
North Dakota is largely rural and one of the nation's most sparsely populated states, but the energy industry has brought new residents to western North Dakota over the past 15 years. As of April, the state's unemployment rate was 2%, tied for the lowest in the nation.