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.
Early life and education 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.
Early career 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)
Elections 1996 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%.
1998 In 1998, Cramer challenged Pomeroy again. Pomeroy won, 56% to 41%.
2010 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.
2012
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.
2014
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%.
2016
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
Abortion Cramer opposes abortion. He is a critic of Planned Parenthood and calls for cutting off public funding of the group.Kevin Cramer: North Dakota women not profitable for Planned Parenthood (video of statement on U.S. House of Representatives floor, made available by Getty Images). (press release), Office of U.S. Representative (July 16, 2015). 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."
Donald Trump 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".
In February 2017, during Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a number of other female Democratic members of Congress wore white, a color honoring suffragettes. Cramer mocked them, saying Pelosi dressed "poorly" and remarking, "It is a syndrome. There is no question, there is a disease associated with the notion that a bunch of women would wear bad-looking white pantsuits in solidarity with Hillary Clinton to celebrate her loss. You cannot get that weird." In June 2020, Cramer blocked bipartisan legislation to sanction China over its actions to undermine Hong Kong's independence—legislation he had co-sponsored—because the Trump administration requested that he do so. On May 28, 2021, Cramer voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
Environment and energy Cramer rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He has said that he would support a small carbon tax if the revenue went to research and development on clean fuel. Reuters has said Cramer is "one of America's most ardent drilling advocates." He supports an increase in oil and gas drilling on public lands and cutting taxes for energy producers; he opposes what he characterizes as overreach by the United States Environmental Protection Agency., In May 2016 Trump asked Cramer to draft Trump's campaign's energy policy. Cramer wrote Trump's energy plan, which heavily promoted fossil fuels, weakened environmental regulation, promising to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and repeal U.S. regulations of carbon emissions. In June 2023, Cramer was the lead Republican sponsor of the PROVE IT Act, which would direct the United States Department of Energy to collect data on the greenhouse gas intensity of certain goods made in the U.S. and other countries, data that could enable trade policy addressing international disparities in environmental standards. He was joined by lead Democratic sponsor Chris Coons.
Food stamps Cramer supports cuts in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program), and attracted controversy in 2013 when he cited a Biblical quotation several times in support of Republicans' efforts to cut $40 billion from the program over 10 years.
Gun policy Cramer said that gun control would not have prevented the Orlando nightclub shooting. In 2016 he criticized proposed gun control legislation, saying, "The problem isn't the U.S. Constitution. The problem is Islamic terrorism."
Health care Cramer opposes the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") and voted to repeal it without a replacement five times.U.S. House Votes to Repeal Obamacare (press release), Office of U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer (February 3, 2015). He has voted against health insurance protections for patients with preexisting conditions and against the expansion of Medicaid. He said that the American Health Care Act of 2017, the Republican bill he supported to repeal and replace Obamacare, would have prevented "price discrimination" against people with preexisting conditions; The Washington Post fact-checker called the assertion false.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cramer introduced legislation to ban vaccine and mask mandates. He opposed adding unruly passengers to the No Fly List, saying that unruly passengers who refuse to comply with mask requirements are not the same as terrorists.
LGBT rights Cramer opposes same-sex marriage and castigated the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh In 2018, Cramer called both Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegation against Clarence Thomas and Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh "absurd". He called Ford's allegation "even more absurd" than Hill's because the sexual assault that Ford said happened "never went anywhere" and because both Kavanaugh and Ford were intoxicated teenagers. Cramer questioned whether Ford's allegation would disqualify Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court even if true, but said that if Kavanaugh were found to have lied in denying the allegation, that would be disqualifying.
Taxes Cramer has voted to repeal the estate tax, which imposes a tax after the first several million dollars on a dead person's estate. He supports Trump's 25% tax on many types of imports, which may have decreased sales for North Dakota's soybean industry in 2018, but said he believes the long-term benefits of a trade war are worth it.
Violence Against Women Act In 2013, at a forum on the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Cramer engaged in "a testy exchange with Native American victim assistance leaders." He later released a statement apologizing for his "tone and rhetoric" during the exchange. He voted to reauthorize VAWA, but opposed language in the act that would allow tribal courts to prosecute non-Natives "for abusing or assaulting Native American women on Indian land." Cramer asked, "How could a non-Native man get a fair trial on a reservation?" and questioned the provision's constitutionality. He voted for an amendment to repeal it.
Committee assignments Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Caucus memberships Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus Congressional Western Caucus Congressional Coalition on Adoption (co-chair)
U.S. Senate (2019–present)
Elections 2018