Hoeven facing challenge for Senate seat from State Rep. Rick Becker

US Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND)

BISMARCK, N.D. – John Hoeven has spent more than two decades handily winning the support of delegates to the state’s Republican Party convention, first as governor and later as a U.S. senator. This year, though, may be different.

Hoeven faces a challenge from state Rep. Rick Becker, the leader of a growing faction of ultraconservatives that has made waves at small district GOP gatherings in recent weeks, including one event where Hoeven’s wife was heckled.

“I don’t want to come out as anti-Hoeven but Becker represents what we want better than our senator in Washington,” said Jay Lundeen, chairman of a Minot-area district who said its 35 delegates “overwhelmingly” endorsed Becker.

“We want the party to go back to basics and follow our platform.”

Up to 2,000 delegates are expected at the Bismarck Event Center, where the convention opens Friday as candidates begin staffing booths and mingling to coax support. They’ll eventually endorse candidates in eight statewide offices.

Betting against Hoeven winning endorsement again — perhaps easily — would be perilous. Hoeven, 65, is the only governor in state history who won three four-year terms. He also got former President Donald Trump’s endorsement shortly before the convention.

“Across the board, I’m conservative,” Hoeven said in an interview ahead of the convention. “I am fighting for conservative principles and I have all along.”

And he downplayed any concern about the endorsement.

“(Becker) is going to have good support and we expect that,” Hoeven said. “I got a really good team. We’re working hard and getting good response.”

Becker, 57, of Bismarck, is a plastic surgeon, commercial real estate developer, and former gubernatorial candidate. After he was elected to the state House in 2012, he founded the ultraconservative Bastiat Caucus, fervent supporters of limited government and spending and privacy and gun rights.

The caucus doesn’t disclose its members, making it difficult to gauge its strength, but its emergence has sometimes divided the otherwise dominant Republican Party.

Some Bastiats were linked to a petition drive to term-limit North Dakota legislators that failed earlier this month to get enough legitimate signatures to make the November ballot. Bastiats also argued unsuccessfully against the expulsion of one of their members, Rep. Luke Simons, over allegations of sexual harassment.

Becker, who calls Hoeven a “big government, big spending, corporate welfare Republican,” downplayed Trump’s endorsement.

“In the big picture, it doesn’t change anything,” Becker said. “People in D.C. and Mar-a-Lago have no idea what’s going on in North Dakota. There is a movement.”

Becker said he doesn’t know how many delegates will support him, but predicted a “very, very close” endorsement battle. Whatever the outcome, he said, rank-and-file Republicans have taken notice of ultraconservatives pushing the party in a new direction.

Lundeen, the Minot-area chairman, said conservatives like him are motivated by the erosion of individuals’ rights such as mask mandates and runaway federal spending. He pointed to heavy spending on pandemic relief and President Joe Biden’s administration’s trillion-dollar infrastructure bill where 19 Republicans — including Hoven and North Dakota U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer — joined 50 Democrats and independents to vote in favor of the legislation.

“All it does is put us in a hole,” Lundeen said. “We can’t spend ourselves into prosperity.”

Hoeven, he said, “may be voting right but he tiptoes on the issues — he’s got to walk a little firmer” to better appeal to the growing ultra-conservative movement in the state.

State GOP Chairman Perrie Schafer was unhappy when Hoeven’s wife, Mikey, was heckled by Becker supporters at a GOP district meeting in Bismarck. The senator wasn’t present. Schafer said it’s “not the way any Republican should act” and said he hopes there’s nothing similar at the state convention.

Hoeven doesn’t need the endorsement to run in a primary — candidates only need petition signatures from 300 voters to make the ballot. And if Becker were to pull off an upset, Hoeven need only look to Gov. Doug Burgum for an example of an unendorsed candidate who went on to win both a primary and a general election.

Becker has said he won’t run if he’s not endorsed, while Hoeven wouldn’t say. The senator has more than $3 million on hand for a campaign, while Becker hasn’t yet filed campaign finance reports.

Should Hoeven lose the convention, his endorsement by Trump will appeal to many GOP voters in the electorate, Lundeen said.

“I could see Rick winning the convention but losing the primary,” Lundeen said. “That Trump thing carries a lot of weight and puts Rick in an uphill battle.”