John Hoeven, a former president of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota, had never run for political office before the Democrat-turned-Republican was elected governor in 2000. He got 55 percent of the vote against his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp.

Hoeven cruised to re-election in 2004, defeating Democrat Joseph Satrom, a travel business owner, former Bismarck state senator and executive with the Ducks Unlimited and Nature Conservancy conservation groups. Hoeven won 71 percent of the vote.

In 2008, Hoeven won his third term by beating Fargo state Sen. Tim Mathern, a former Democratic Senate floor leader and executive at a Fargo psychiatric hospital, with 74 percent of the vote. With his victory, he became the first North Dakota governor to win three consecutive four-year terms since the term of the office was lengthened from two to four years in 1968. Only one governor, Democrat Arthur Link, had attempted the feat; he was beaten for re-election in 1980.

(Last updated by Dale Wetzel on May 22, 2009.)

Kent Conrad was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, with 50 percent of the vote, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Mark Andrews.

In April 1992, Conrad said he would not run for re-election to keep a campaign promise to refrain from doing so if the nation's budget and trade deficits and its "real interest rates," defined as the difference between interest rates and inflation, had not declined significantly. North Dakota Democrats endorsed U.S. Rep. Byron Dorgan to run for Conrad's seat.

However, when North Dakota's other senator, Democrat Quentin Burdick, died in September 1992 at age 84, Conrad decided to run for Burdick's seat. In a special election in December 1992, Conrad defeated Jack Dalrymple, a Casselton farmer, businessman and state legislator, with 63 percent of the vote.

In 1994, Conrad defeated Republican Ben Clayburgh, a retired Grand Forks doctor, to win his second full term with 58 percent of the vote.

Conrad defeated Duane Sand, a Fargo motel owner, Naval Academy graduate and former Navy submarine officer, in 2000, winning 62 percent of the vote.

Conrad defeated Dwight Grotberg, a farmer from Sanborn in Barnes County, in 2006 with 69 percent of the vote.

Conrad narrowly lost his first race for statewide office, a 1976 bid for state auditor.

Conrad was elected tax commissioner in 1980 when Dorgan left the post to run for the U.S. House. Conrad was re-elected as tax commissioner in 1984.

(Last updated by Dale Wetzel on May 22, 2009.)

Byron L. Dorgan won the U.S. Senate seat vacated in 1992 by Democrat Kent Conrad, Dorgan's former aide in the North Dakota Tax Department and his campaign manager when Dorgan first ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1974.

In the 1992 general election, Dorgan defeated Republican Steve Sydness, a Fargo businessman, with 59 percent of the vote.

Dorgan was re-elected in 1998, defeating Donna Nalewaja, a Fargo real estate broker and Republican state senator, with 63 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2004 with 68 percent of the vote, defeating Republican Mike Liffrig, an attorney and jury consultant from rural Mandan.

Dorgan was elected to the House in 1980, defeating state Sen. James Smykowski of Cayuga. He was re-elected easily to five consecutive House terms, winning each time with at least 65 percent of the vote.

Dorgan was appointed state tax commissioner in 1969 at 26 after the commissioner at the time, Ed Sjaastad, died in 1969 from an overdose of sleeping pills. Dorgan was elected to four-year terms as tax commissioner in 1972 and 1976.

(Last updated by Dale Wetzel on May 22, 2009.)