Former Miss America Cara Mund announces her candidacy for Congress as a Republican in North Dakota: the pageant star supports abortion rights and wants to secure the border

Miss America 2018 Cara Mund, 30, announced Monday that she will run for North Dakota’s sole House of Representatives seat in 2024.

As Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) runs for governor of her state, Mund is taking her second chance at the at-large seat.

The former Miss America winner ran an unsuccessful independent bid in the 2022 election for Armstrong’s seat in Congress, losing to the incumbent by 24.6 percent.

She ran defending abortion rights in the last election, claiming that her motivation for entering the race stemmed from the Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization decision. Jackson on the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped federal abortion protections.

‘Are you ready for it? US House of Representatives 2024…go North Dakota!’ The millennial candidate cited Taylor Swift’s lyrics when announcing her candidacy in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Mund said he has filed the appropriate paperwork with the North Dakota Secretary of State’s office and is awaiting verification to ensure he is on the June primary ballot.

If successful in 2024, Mund would be the first woman to represent North Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mund told reporters Monday that he believes in limited government and reiterated his pro-choice stance, saying, “I don’t think they should control women.”

He also said he has many similar views as his opponents in the race, including the security of the southern border.

But he hedged on whether he supports former President Donald Trump, whom many still see as a kingmaker in the Republican Party.

“As a lawyer, I support law and order,” Mund said. “If you’ve been proven guilty, that’s a court ruling.”

The North Dakota Republican state convention last week resulted in the party endorsing Alex Balazs, a veteran and former U.S. State Department employee, to fill the seat Armstrong vacated.

The other Republican candidates are former state Rep. Rick Becker, Public Utilities Commissioner Julie Fedorchak and Sharlet Mohr, a lesser-known candidate.

Mund was crowned Miss America 2018 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and was the first contestant from North Dakota to win the competition. She supported the elimination of the swimsuit competition and was the last crowned Miss America to participate in that portion of the pageant.

“Swimsuits should never equate to scholarships,” Mund told the AP in June 2018. “I think a woman’s lifestyle and physical condition can be shown in a way that doesn’t show her in a swimsuit.” “.

“The Miss America Organization is a scholarship program,” he added. “No woman should ever feel that her physical appearance prevents her from pursuing these scholarship opportunities.”

Mund attended Brown for his undergraduate degree, earned a degree in Business, and graduated from Harvard Law School in May 2022, just three months before his first run for Congress in North Dakota.

She plans to present her political positions in the coming days and is speaking with a North Dakota media outlet. Your news leader on Tuesday to talk more about his career and platform this time.

In the 2024 election, Armstrong is seeking to fill the seat vacated by outgoing Gov. Doug Burgum, who was running for the Republican presidential nomination. The governor ended his candidacy in December and endorsed Donald Trump.

Burgum is not seeking a third term for governor of North Dakota, a position Republicans have held since 1992.

North Dakota now seeks to elect a new governor and at-large representative in this year’s election, setting the stage for some Republican primary showdowns in the deeply red state.

Democrats have not won a state election in North Dakota since 2012.