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BISMARCK — As of 11:10 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong held the lead over Independent Cara Mund in the race for North Dakota’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
With more than 235,000 votes counted, Armstrong had 62% of the vote, compared to Mund's 37.7%. Of 398 precincts, 374 are fully reporting.
The number of votes counted may not contain results returned by mail.
Armstrong celebrated election night from the North Dakota GOP election party in Bismarck. He said he is looking forward to likely representing North Dakota for a third term.
"You get to do this every two years, and each one's unique," Armstrong said. "It's always fun to run, but I'm always glad when it's over — it's time to get to work."
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Armstrong, a Republican from Dickinson, has served two terms in the U.S. House. He was first elected in 2018, when he won 60.3% of the vote over Democrat Mac Schneider (35.6%). In 2020, he was reelected with 69% of the vote over Democrat Zach Raknerud (27.6%) and Libertarian Steven Peterson (3.4%).
Mund, from Bismarck, graduated from Harvard Law School in 2022 and recently passed the bar exam. She was also a former Miss North Dakota and was crowned North Dakota’s first Miss America in 2018 . Mund kicked off her campaign in August, with hopes of becoming the first woman to represent North Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives. This was her first time running for public office.
Though Mund has some seemingly conservative viewpoints, such as being against President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, one of her main policy platforms in the race was abortion rights. In earlier interviews, she said running as an independent candidate allows her to put people over party affiliations.
Mund, also in Bismarck, said she was proud of the campaign she ran. Though falling behind in terms of vote totals, she believes she won in other ways.
"There are a lot of ways to win this, in the sense that I've heard from so many women that they now want to run for school board or throw their hat in the ring for city commissioner, maybe state office or federal office," Mund said.
She also maintains pride in not taking money from political action committees.
U.S. representatives are elected every two years, and are paid an annual salary of $174,000.
Republicans have held North Dakota’s at-large seat in the House since 2010. The last non-Republican representative from North Dakota was Earl Pomeroy, a Democrat. He was first elected in 1992, and lost reelection to Republican Rick Berg in 2010.
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