Heidi Heitkamp

Mary Kathryn "Heidi" Heitkamp (, ; born October 30, 1955) is an American 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 interned for the United States Congress in 1976 and in the North Dakota Legislative Assembly in 1977.

She 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 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 state Auditor and lost to incumbent Republican Robert W. Peterson.

In 1986, Kent Conrad resigned as tax commissioner after his election to the U.S. Senate.

North Dakota 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.

Heitkamp served as the 28th North Dakota attorney general from 1992 to 2000 and 20th North Dakota tax commissioner from 1986 to 1992.

, she is the last Democrat to have represented North Dakota in Congress, and the last to hold statewide office.

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.

As attorney general of North Dakota, Heitkamp became known for leading the state's legal efforts to seek damages from tobacco companies, eventually resulting in the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

Heitkamp ran for governor of North Dakota in 2000 and lost to Republican John Hoeven.

In 2000, incumbent Republican governor Ed Schafer decided not to seek a third term.

Heitkamp ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

On the Republican side, John Hoeven, CEO of the Bank of North Dakota, also ran unopposed.

During her campaign for governor, it was announced that Heitkamp had been diagnosed with breast cancer, which later went into remission.

Hoeven defeated her, 55% to 45%.

Heitkamp won 12 of the state's 53 counties.

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 now serves on the advisory board of the Canadian American Business Council.

Heitkamp's brother, Joel, is a radio talk-show host and former North Dakota state senator.

Heitkamp has occasionally filled in as host of his program, News and Views, which is broadcast on KFGO in Fargo and other stations in North Dakota.

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.

In January 2023, Heitkamp became the director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.

Heitkamp was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota, the fourth of seven children of Doreen LaVonne (née Berg), a school cook, and Raymond Bernard Heitkamp, a janitor and construction worker.

Her father was of German descent, her mother of half Norwegian and half German ancestry.

Heitkamp was raised in Mantador, North Dakota, attending local public schools.

She adopted the nickname "Heidi" in first grade to distinguish herself from two other classmates named Mary and Kathy.