Kevin John Cramer (born January 21, 1961) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator for North Dakota since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he represented North Dakota's at-large congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019.
Cramer chaired the North Dakota Republican Party from 1991 to 1993 and served as state tourism director from 1993 to 1997 and state Economic Development Director from 1997 to 2000. He was on the state Public Service Commission from 2003 to 2012. In 2012, he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2018, he defeated Senator Heidi Heitkamp, winning his first Senate term and becoming the first Republican to be elected to North Dakota's Class I Senate seat since 1958. He was reelected in 2024, defeating Democratic nominee Katrina Christiansen.
Cramer was born in Rolla, North Dakota, on January 21, 1961, the first of five children of Clarice (Hjelden) and Richard Cramer. He grew up in Kindred, North Dakota, and graduated from Kindred High School. He received a B.A. degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, in 1983. He earned a master's degree in management from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, in 2003.
After college, Cramer campaigned for Scott Hove, the Republican-endorsed tax commissioner candidate, in 1984. In 1986, Cramer campaigned for U.S. Senator Mark Andrews in his bid for reelection. Andrews narrowly lost to North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party nominee Kent Conrad. Cramer then worked for the state Republican Party.
Cramer chaired the North Dakota Republican Party from 1991 to 1993. At 30, he was the youngest person to be state party chairman. In May 1993, Governor Ed Schafer appointed Cramer state tourism director. Cramer was preceded by Jim Fuglie and succeeded by Bob Martinson. Cramer served in the position until he was appointed Economic Development Director in June 1997. As director, Cramer was preceded by Chuck Stroup. Lee Peterson succeeded him in December 2000. After a stint as director of economic development, Cramer became director of the Harold Schafer Leadership Foundation in 2000. He served in the position until 2003.
North Dakota Public Service Commission (2003–2012)
In 2003, Governor John Hoeven appointed Cramer to the North Dakota Public Service Commission. He was elected to a six-year term on the commission in 2004, defeating NPL nominee Ron Gumeringer, 65% to 35%. In 2010, Cramer was reelected to the Public Service Commission, defeating Democratic nominee Brad Crabtree, 61% to 35%. Cramer served on the commission until 2012.
U.S. House of Representatives (2013–2019)
In 1996, House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas—a North Dakota native—persuaded Cramer to challenge Democratic U.S. Representative Earl Pomeroy in North Dakota's at-large congressional district. Pomeroy won, 55% to 43%.
In 1998, Cramer challenged Pomeroy again. Pomeroy won, 56% to 41%.
On January 14, Cramer announced that he would run for North Dakota's seat in the United States House of Representatives for a third time in the 2010 election. In early 2010, he appeared at North Dakota town hall meetings, where he opposed the Affordable Care Act. Cramer attended many Tea Party rallies in North Dakota and spoke about energy, taxes, jobs, and the U.S. Constitution. At the state Republican Party convention in March 2010, former House Majority Leader Rick Berg won the Republican congressional nomination; Berg was elected to Congress in November.
In 2012, Berg retired to run for the U.S. Senate. Cramer ran for the seat a fourth time. Various national conservative groups, including FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth, endorsed him, but Berg endorsed Cramer's rival, fellow Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk. In the Republican primary election in June, Cramer received 54,405 votes (54%) to Kalk's 45,415 (45%).
In the November general election, Cramer defeated Democratic-NPL State Representative Pam Gulleson, with 173,585 votes (55%) to Gulleson's 131,870 (42%). Libertarian Party nominee Eric Olson received about 3% of the vote. Cramer was sworn in on January 3, 2013.
In 2014 Cramer ran for reelection and was unopposed in the Republican primary. He won the general election with 55% of the vote, defeating Democratic-NPL nominee George B. Sinner, who received 38%. Libertarian candidate Jack Seaman received slightly under 6%.
In 2016 Cramer ran for a third term in Congress. He was unopposed in the primary and defeated Democratic-NPL nominee Chase Iron Eyes, a Native American activist, in the general election with 69% of the vote.
Tenure and political positions
Cramer opposes abortion. He is a critic of Planned Parenthood and calls for cutting off public funding of the group. In 2013 Cramer condemned the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and said an uptick in mass shootings was linked to the legalization of abortion and a decline in religious values. The remark was criticized by the director of the North Dakota Democratic Party and in Cosmopolitan. Cramer said, "I was asked recently by a reporter if I am afraid that some people would attack me if I speak like this... I said, 'No, I am not afraid they will, I am quite certain they will.'" In the same speech, Cramer said, "We have normalized perversion and perverted God's natural law."
Cramer has been closely allied with President Donald Trump since 2015, when Trump announced his candidacy for president. Cramer was "one of a handful of early Trump endorsers" among U.S. House Republicans. Cramer supported Trump's 2017 executive order banning entry to the U.S. by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, saying, "I think what Donald Trump is doing is he's pulling America's head out of the sand and facing the reality that we have not been kept very safe by current immigration and refugee policies." Cramer is said to be one of Trump's allies in Congress and pledged to be with Trump "100 percent of the time".