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

Miss America 2018 Cara Mund, 30, announced on Monday she is running for the single House seat for North Dakota in 2024.

As Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) runs for governor in his state, Mund is making her second shot to get the at-large seat.

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

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

‘Are you ready for it? U.S. House 2024…let’s go, North Dakota!’ the millennial candidate quoting Taylor Swift lyrics in announcing her bid in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 

Mund said she filed the appropriate paperwork with the North Dakota Secretary of State’s office and is waiting for verification to make sure she’s 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 on Monday that she believes in limited government and reiterated her pro-choice stance by saying: ‘I don’t think that they should be controlling women.’

She also said she has many similar views to her opponents in the race, including securing the southern border.

But she dodged on whether she supports former President Donald Trump, who many still see as a kingmaker of the Republican Party.

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

The North Dakota GOP state convention last week resulted in the Party endorsing Alex Balazs, a veteran and former U.S. State Department employee, to take the seat being vacated by Armstrong.

The other GOP candidates are former state Rep. Rick Becker, Public Service 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-ever contestant from North Dakota to win the competition. She supported dropping the swimsuit competition and was the last Miss America crowned to participate in that portion of the pageant.

‘Swimsuits should never equal scholarships,’ Mund told the AP in June 2018. ‘I believe that a woman’s lifestyle and fitness can be showcased in a way that does not display her in a swimsuit.’

‘The Miss America Organization is a scholarship program,’ she added. ‘No woman should ever feel like her physical appearance limits her from seeking out these scholarship opportunities.’

Mund attended Brown for her undergraduate and received a degree in Business and graduated from Harvard Law school in May 2022 – just three months before her first bid for Congress in North Dakota. 

She plans to roll out her policy stances in coming days and is speaking with North Dakota outlet Your News Leader on Tuesday to talk more about her run and her platform this time around.

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

Burgum is not seeking a third term for governor in North Dakota – a seat Republicans have held since 1992. 

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

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