Heitkamp, Heidi, 1955-
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Mary Kathryn Heitkamp (born October 30, 1955) is an American businesswoman, lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from North Dakota from 2013 to 2019. A member of the North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party, she was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from North Dakota. Heitkamp served as the 28th North Dakota attorney general from 1992 to 2000 and 20th North Dakota tax commissioner from 1986 to 1992. As of 2021, she is the last Democrat to hold statewide office in North Dakota.
Born in Breckenridge, Minnesota and raised in Mantador, North Dakota, Heitkamp earned a B.A. from the University of North Dakota in 1977 and a J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1980. In 1980 and 1981, Heitkamp worked as an attorney for the United States Environmental Protection Agency. She next worked as an attorney for North Dakota State Tax Commissioner Kent Conrad. She also became active in politics, joining the North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party. In 1984, Heitkamp ran for North Dakota state auditor and lost to incumbent Republican Robert W. Peterson. In 1986, Conrad resigned as tax commissioner after his election to the U.S. Senate. Governor George A. Sinner appointed Heitkamp tax commissioner before she ran for the office and was elected with 66% of the vote against Republican Marshall Moore. She served in that position until 1992. In 1992, the incumbent North Dakota attorney general, Nick Spaeth, retired in order to run for governor. Heitkamp ran for attorney general and won with 62% of the vote. She was reelected in 1996 with 64% of the vote.
Heitkamp ran for governor of North Dakota in 2000 and lost to Republican John Hoeven. From 2001 to 2012, Heitkamp served as an external director on the Dakota Gasification Company's Great Plains synfuels plant's board of directors. She considered a bid for the Democratic nomination in the 2010 U.S. Senate election to replace the retiring Byron Dorgan, but on March 3, 2010, declined to run against Hoeven, who was ultimately elected.
In November 2011, Heitkamp declared her candidacy to replace the retiring Kent Conrad as U.S. senator from North Dakota in the 2012 election. She narrowly defeated Republican Congressman Rick Berg on November 6, 2012, in that year's closest Senate race. Heitkamp was North Dakota's second female senator, after Jocelyn Burdick, and the first woman to be elected to the Senate from the state. On November 6, 2018, Republican congressman Kevin Cramer defeated Heitkamp in her bid for reelection. After leaving the Senate, Heitkamp became a CNBC contributor and visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics. In April 2019, with Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana (who also lost reelection in 2018), she launched One Country Project, an organization aimed at helping Democrats reconnect with rural voters.
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Subjects:
- Advertising, political
- Television advertising
Occupations:
- Businesswomen
- Lawyers
- Senators, U.S. Congress
- State Government Official
- Television personalities
Places:
- ND, US
- ND, US
- MA, US
- OR, US
