Heitkamp won’t run for N.D. governor

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) will not run for governor of North Dakota in 2016, opting instead to stay in the Senate, where she’s not up for reelection until 2018.

{mosads}Rumors have been swirling in North Dakota for months that Heitkamp had been eyeing the governor’s mansion. That speculation intensified when Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R-N.D.) announced last month he would not seek a second term in office.

Heitkamp could have kept her Senate seat and run for governor at the same time, but said in a statement Wednesday that she didn’t want to divide her time between a campaign at home and her work in Washington.

“Ever since Governor Dalrymple announced he would not run for re-election, I have had many North Dakotans encourage me to run for governor,” she said. “While I greatly appreciate that trust and confidence, I have a job that I love and that the people of North Dakota entrusted to me for a full six years, so I will not run for governor in 2016.”

Heitkamp would have been a formidable candidate for governor. Fearing her candidacy, Republicans in the state passed a bill requiring open Senate seats be filled by special election, stripping her of the ability to appoint an interim successor.

That could have left Democrats with a gaping hole to fill in the Senate in a year when they’re seeking to reclaim a majority. Heitkamp won her 2012 election by fewer than 3,000 votes, and North Dakota is a red state where Republicans hold a strong majority of political offices at the state level.

Heitkamp ran for governor in 2000, losing to Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who spent 10 years in office and is now her colleague in the Senate.

Hoeven is up for reelection in 2016 but has not yet attracted a Democratic challenger in a race that is not expected to be competitive.