A Republican State Representative from Bismarck is launching a campaign to run for the US Senate as an independent.
Rick Becker will need 1,000 valid signatures to get on the November ballot.
Becker had challenged incumbent US Senator John Hoeven at the state GOP convention. He narrowly lost the nomination to Hoeven. At the time, he said he would not challenge Hoeven in the primary, and Becker didn’t mount a primary campaign. But he said he was motivated to get into the race at this time because of federal spending, which he says is causing the current inflation.
"In the recent weeks, Sen. Hoeven has been talking about what we need to do to help bring down inflation," Becker said in an interview. "He's blaming Joe Biden, he's blaming Vladimir Putin, and he's blaming everybody except where he should be pointing the finger, and that's back at himself."
Becker said he's an alternative to the "big spending" Hoeven, and the "big spending" Democrat, Katrina Christiansen.
Becker said he is planning to hold an "old-fashioned stump tour" across the state to gather the needed signatures.