North Dakota’s Becker to seek Hoeven’s Senate seat after all

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota state Rep. Rick Becker says he plans to run as an independent for the U.S. Senate seat held by John Hoeven, who narrowly defeated Becker for the Republican nomination to run for a third term. Becker, a Bismarck plastic surgeon who founded an ultraconservative faction in the North Dakota Legislature, said after failing to get the GOP nomination in April that he wouldn’t run in November. But he said Monday that big spending in Washington has changed his mind and that he’ll start gathering the 1,000 signatures he needs by Sept. 6 to get on the ballot. If he gathers enough signatures, in November he will face Hoeven and Democrat Katrina Christiansen, a political newcomer.