U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., has declined to run for re-election this year, and a wide array of candidates are running to replace him.
The Republican candidates range from political unknowns to Washington bureaucrats to… a former Miss America?!
Cara Mund won the Miss North Dakota pageant in 2017, and she was crowned Miss America 2018 later that year, in a first for North Dakota. Before that, she hosted fashion shows to raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
However, Mund has spent most of her career in law and politics.
A Harvard-educated lawyer, she works as an associate for the white-shoe law firm Quinn Emanuel. From the firm’s New York office, Mund handles white-collar handles bankruptcy, criminal defense, labor and employment, and other litigation.
In 2016, Mund interned for U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, another Republican of North Dakota. She ran against Armstrong as an independent in 2022. She prompted the Democrat to drop out, and she came in second to Armstrong.
In both her runs for office, she cited Dobbs v. Jackson as her cause for running.
“I’m a strong believer in limited government,” Mund told reporters Monday. “I don’t think that they should be controlling women.”
As a lawyer, Mund supports restoring order to the U.S.-Mexico border, but she’s also expressed concerns about the manifold indictments against former President Donald Trump.
“As a lawyer, I support law and order,” she said. “If you’ve been proven guilty, that is a court ruling.”
Mund said that she registered as a Republican in order to represent her fellow North Dakotans better and to avoid becoming “just a puppet sitting in that seat.”
Candidates needed to file by Monday, April 8, in order to appear on the ballot for the June 11 primary. Mere days before, each political party held a convention to endorse its preferred candidates for different offices.
Mund entered the race Monday, after the nominating convention.
The North Dakota GOP endorsed Alex Balazs, a military veteran known better known as an ex-employee of the U.S. State Department.
Mund will face Balazs, former state Rep. Rick Becker, Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak and political unknown Sharlet Mohr.
The state’s Democrat Party endorsed military veteran Trygve Hammer over perennial candidate Roland Riemers.
In this bright red state, the Democrats are facing a less crowded primary. According to party spokesperson Laura Dronen, the Democrats failed to recruit even a single candidate for some offices, like treasurer and insurance commissioner.
Are you ready for it? U.S. House 2024…let’s go, North Dakota! pic.twitter.com/DWBGJVdpMm
— Cara Mund (@CaraMund) April 9, 2024
The Horn editorial and the Associated Press contributed to this article.