Former Miss America Cara Mund is running for this seat as a Republican. She ran as an independent in 2022 and was the de facto Democratic candidate since no D ran, and she put up a respectable performance. Last time around she said her decision to run was based on Dobbs. Wonder what her position on that is now that she's a Republican?
According to an article I read on apnews.com, Mund said that "'I'm a strong believer in limited government. I don't think that they should be controlling women'" and that she's running as a Republican "to give North Dakotans a strong voice in Congress, 'not just a puppet sitting in that seat.'" So I'm guessing she's keeping the same stance on Dobbs and abortion that she had last time she ran.
A beauty pageant contestant could give a more coherent and meaningful answer than that. Oh wait...
Being serious though, she probably will need to pivot to a pro-life stance to win the primary. It's way too easy for her opponents to dispatch her by running a few ads saying she's pro-choice. Otherwise though, I do wonder if she could make a serious play at the nomination. She's far from the most serious or experienced primary candidate, but she has great name recognition in the state and is something of a hometown hero for being the first North Dakota winner of Miss America. Might be why she did surprisingly well in 2022.
North Dakota does not have party registration (in fact no voter registration at all) so it's essentially an open primary, her strategy could be to remain pro-choice and win a splintered field with Democratic crossover votes.
