North Dakota’s governor says will not seek re-election in 2016

The announcement Monday by North Dakota’s common Republican governor, Jack Dalrymple, could be sufficient to lure one of many state’s senators house from Washington.

The 66-year-old Casselton native has been governor since December 2010 when John Hoeven resigned to join the United States Senate. Dalrymple says he and his wife, Betsy, plan to spend more time with family, including their five grandchildren.

Stenehjem, in office since 2000, said that as recently as Monday morning he had expected Dalrymple to run again. Democrats said at the time that GOP lawmakers were trying to discourage Heitkamp from running for governor by taking away the power to appoint a replacement.

“We will miss him”, Armstrong said of Dalrymple. “And we’re going to see more progress in the coming months”.

On the GOP side, Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem have both been mentioned.

Burgum, who now splits his time between the venture capital firm Arthur Ventures and Kilbourne Group, a real estate redevelopment firm focused on downtown Fargo, noted in an interview Monday that North Dakota’s last three governors – Dalrymple, Hoeven and Ed Schafer – were all private-sector leaders first.

“The infrastructure investments across the state will go down in history as the strongest period of state investment”, said Dalrymple.

Poolman said the pressure to decide whether to run is tougher on Heidi Heitkamp because Republicans would likely capture her Senate seat should she vacate it.

“North Dakota has made incredible progress and I feel so blessed to have been part of leading our state, especially in the years since 2000, truly a golden period for North Dakota”, he said.

“We thank him for his almost four decades of public service”.

Dalrymple governed during a time of major economic expansion, fueled by the Bakken shale play.

He also pushed through regulations that require every barrel of oil be filtered for unsafe types of natural gas in order to make crude-by-rail transport safer, steps that were aggressively opposed by the state’s energy industry.

“I have really enjoyed serving”, said Dalrymple, adding that his successor will have “a wonderful opportunity to build on a great foundation I think we’ve established in North Dakota”.

Armstrong said he wasn’t surprised by Dalrymple’s announcement.

Hoeven issued a statement highlighting Dalrymple’s years of service to the state and saying he “has earned the appreciation and respect of all North Dakotans”.