Portal:North Dakota/Biography/2007September

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Byron Leslie Dorgan (born May 14, 1942) is the junior United States Senator from North Dakota. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party, the North Dakota affiliate of the Democratic Party. In the Senate, he is Chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee and Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs.

Dorgan was born in Dickinson, North Dakota to Dorothy Bach and Emmett Patrick Dorgan and was raised in Regent, North Dakota. He is married to the former Kimberly Olson, and they have had four children, Scott, Brendon, Haley, and Shelly, who is deceased. He earned a B.S. from the University of North Dakota in 1964 and an M.B.A. from the University of Denver in 1966.

He served as tax commissioner of North Dakota from 1969 until 1980, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, of which he was a member from 1981 until 1992 (being re-elected every two years). In 1992, the Democratic incumbent, Kent Conrad opted not to run for re-election because of a campaign promise. Dorgan won the election for the seat. However, that September the state's other senator, Quentin Burdick, died and North Dakota's governor appointed Conrad to that seat instead. Conrad took the new seat in 1992, and Dorgan assumed Conrad's old seat a few weeks early. Dorgan was re-elected in 1998 and 2004. Conrad later was elected for a full term from North Dakota's other Senate seat.

He has also written a popular book: Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America; Thomas Dunne Books, (July 25, 2006), ISBN 0-312-35522-X.