# 2006 United States Senate election in North Dakota

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The 2006 United States Senate election in North Dakota was held November 7, 2006. Incumbent Democratic-NPL U.S. Senator Kent Conrad won re-election to a fourth term. As of 2025, this is the last time where either party won every county for the Class 1 Senate seat in North Dakota.

## Major candidates
### Democratic-NPL

* Kent Conrad, incumbent U.S. Senator

### Republican

* Dwight Grotberg

## Campaign

Popular Republican governor John Hoeven was heavily recruited by prominent national Republicans, including Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to run against Conrad. SurveyUSA polls showed that both Conrad and Hoeven had among the highest approval ratings of any Senators and governors in the nation. A poll conducted by PMR (8/26-9/3 MoE 3.9) for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead had as result for a hypothetical matchup: Hoeven-35%, Conrad-27%, Uncommitted-38%. This poll showed voter conflict between two very popular politicians in a small state where party loyalty is often trumped by personality. In late September 2005, Hoeven formally declined. Hoeven ran for the Senate in 2010 and was elected by a landslide, in that year's Republican midterm wave.

### Debates

* Complete video of debate, October 17, 2006

### Predictions

| Source | Ranking | As of |
| The Cook Political Report | Solid D | November 6, 2006 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball | Safe D | November 6, 2006 |
| Rothenberg Political Report | Safe D | November 6, 2006 |
| Real Clear Politics | Safe D | November 6, 2006 |

### Polling

| Source | Date | Kent Conrad (D-NPL) | Dwight Grotberg (R) |
| Rasmussen | January 30, 2006 | 59% | 31% |

### Results

General election results :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Democratic–NPL | Kent Conrad (incumbent) | 150,146 | 68.83% | +7.46% |
| | Republican | Dwight Grotberg | 64,417 | 29.53% | −9.10% |
| | Independent | Roland Riemers | 2,194 | 1.01% | n/a |
| | Independent | James Germalic | 1,395 | 0.64% | n/a |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 85,729 | 39.30% | +16.56% |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 218,154 | 44.5% | |
| | Democratic–NPL hold | Democratic–NPL hold | Swing | +8.3 | |

#### Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

* Billings (largest city: Medora)
* McIntosh (largest city: Wishek)
* Sheridan (largest city: McClusky)