# Ray Holmberg

Raymon Everett Holmberg (born December 10, 1944) is a former educator, school counselor, Republican North Dakota state senator, convicted felon, and sex offender.
Once tied for the longest-serving state legislator in the United States, Holmberg resigned from the senate in 2022 (after 45.5 years) upon investigation into his alleged child sex tourism and receipt of child pornography. In 2024, he pled guilty to charges of the former.

## Personal life

Raymon Everett Holmberg was born on December 10, 1944. He had at least one sibling, a sister. He attended Climax High School in Climax, Minnesota, and was one of 26 senior-class students in the 1960–1961 academic year. He married Kerry Louise Hackett (born 1950 or 1951) of Grand Forks, North Dakota, on April 27, 1973, and as of 2013, had two children and five grandchildren. In December 2020, he contracted COVID-19 and was treated with a convalescent plasma injection.

## Career
### Education

From 1967 to 2002, Holmberg worked for Grand Forks Public Schools as a teacher, "child find coordinator", and school counselor. On November 2, 2023, a North Dakota Department of Public Instruction panel voted unanimously to suspend his lifetime teaching license, with a plan "to revoke it immediately if he pleads guilty to or is convicted of any charge" in his 2023 criminal case.
He was also previously a chairman of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

### Politics

Holmberg was first elected as a Republican to the North Dakota Senate in 1976, and took office that December 1, representing District 17 ("Grand Forks south of 32nd Avenue South, neighborhoods along the Red River, and large areas west and south of the city"). He was to have been one of North Dakota's three electors for certifying the 2020 United States presidential election, but was replaced after contracting COVID-19.
For many years in office, Holmberg chaired both the senate's appropriations committee (which wrote budgets) and legislative management panel (which handled the legislature’s business between biennial sessions). While on a 2021 legislative committee to redistrict the state, Holmberg rejected a map drawing a Native American-majority district, saying it was to avoid gerrymandering; the approved redistricting map was ruled a violation of the Voting Rights Act in 2023 by Judge Peter D. Welte in the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota.
After the 2021 retirement of Fred Risser of the Wisconsin Senate, Holmberg was tied with Nikki G. Setzler of the South Carolina Senate for longest-serving state legislator in the United States. In 2021, Holmberg was the Grand Forks Herald's person of the year. In 2022, he was chairman of the Senate's Appropriations, Rules, and Legislative Management committees while also serving on the interim Budget Section; The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead called Holmberg "one of the most powerful and popular lawmakers in the legislature". From 2013 through mid-2022, Holmberg spent more state money on travel than any other legislator (US$125,810).
In June 2021, Holmberg raised about $20,000 (equivalent to about $23,000 in 2024) for his 2022 reelection campaign. In March 2022, Holmberg announced he would not seek reelection that year due to "health issues including weakened cognitive abilities". After an investigation was published about his communications with an inmate accused of child pornography crimes, Holmberg resigned from the Senate six months early, on June 1, 2022. He was replaced by Jonathan Sickler. Despite no longer working in the North Dakota State Capitol, as of November 2023, Holmberg was still active in politics: offering advice and meeting with legislators to share access to his institutional knowledge, soliciting support for Republican candidates, and corresponding with politicos.

#### Electoral history

2010, primary, North Dakota state senate, 17th District :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Republican | Ray Holmberg | 1,198 | 99.34 |
| | Republican | Write-in candidate(s) | 8 | 0.66 |
2010, general, North Dakota state senate, 17th District :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Republican | Ray Holmberg | 4,088 | 67.91 |
| Democratic–NPL | Thomas Petros | 1,915 | 31.81 |
| | Write-in candidate(s) | 17 | 0.28 |
2014, primary, North Dakota state senate, 17th District :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Republican | Ray Holmberg | 784 | 99.87 |
| | Republican | Write-in candidate(s) | 1 | 0.13 |
2014, general, North Dakota state senate, 17th District :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Republican | Ray Holmberg | 4,869 | 97.97 |
| | | Write-in candidate(s) | 101 | 2.03 |
2018, primary, North Dakota state senate, 17th District :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Republican | Ray Holmberg | 1,519 | 99.67 |
| | Republican | Write-in candidate(s) | 5 | 0.33 |
2018, general, North Dakota state senate, 17th District :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Republican | Ray Holmberg | 5,176 | 59.03 |
| Democratic–NPL | Phyllis E Johnson | 3,584 | 40.87 |
| | Write-in candidate(s) | 9 | 0.10 |

## Criminal charges
### Background

In 2020, Caton Todd (formerly of North Dakota) alleged he was sexually assaulted by Holmberg in 2010, after having been invited to the senator's Miami-area condominium. Holmberg's attorney later confirmed the two men spent time together and that Holmberg owned the condo.
Arrested in March 2021, Nicholas James Morgan-DeRosier (from East Grand Forks, Minnesota, born 1988 or 1989) was indicted ten months later on charges of "receiving and distributing child porn, transporting child porn, transporting minors with intent for those children to engage in sexual activity, and traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity". Court documents listed Morgan-DeRosier having over 6500 images and videos of child sexual abuse material.
On August 23, 2021, while Morgan-DeRosier was incarcerated in the Grand Forks County, North Dakota jail on the possession charges, he texted Holmberg, and the two exchanged 65 messages between 3:23 and 5:24 p.m., in part discussing Holmberg's interest in meeting Morgan-DeRosier's 19-or-20-year-old boyfriend "to give him a massage". The next day, Holmberg texted Morgan-DeRosier, and seven messages were passed back and forth between 6:14 and 6:31 p.m. Morgan-DeRosier was bailed out at 9:14 p.m. on August 24. These text exchanges came to light as federal prosecutor Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl's evidence at Morgan-DeRosier's detention hearing. When The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead uncovered this connection and asked Holmberg about them, the legislator said the messages were about patio construction, claimed ignorance of the massage-related messages, and both claimed to have read about Morgan-DeRosier's changes while also not knowing about them. He later told The Forum, of his texts with Morgan-DeRosier, "They're just gone." Morgan-DeRosier pled guilty to "seven criminal charges related to possessing and distributing child pornography" in September 2023. On May 30, 2024, Judge Peter D. Welte imposed a sentence of 40 years imprisonment, victim restitution of $39,000, and mandatory registration as a sex offender.
At 9:30 a.m. on November 17, 2021, Holmberg's Grand Forks condominium was searched by the federal Department of Homeland Security and the Grand Forks Police Department. Holmberg was interviewed by agents, and evidentiary material was seized from his home, including CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and Holmberg's state-issued iPad and laptop computer. Evidence led to an email account belonging to Holmberg, which he used to plan his trips, saying "The boys rent at around $60 (sex is extra)" and "No one is ever too young …remember Prague."
Prosecutors ultimately determined that, as part of state-funded trips—in cooperation with Atlantik-Brücke to "understand and integrate the various facets of international politics, business, academia and culture"—Holmberg took at least three individual trips to Prague, Czech Republic (June 24, 2011; September 29, 2018; and late June 2019) to illegally have sex with minors. With his senatorial leadership position, Holmberg approved state reimbursement of $126,000 of his own personal travel expenses to Prague.

### Federal indictment and trial

A grand jury in the US District Court for North Dakota returned an indictment against Holmberg on October 26, 2023 (United States of America v. Raymon Everett Holmberg). Holmberg was also indicted for receiving or attempting to receive child pornography (between November 24, 2012, and March 4, 2013); Jennifer Puhl testified that Holmberg used the aliases Sean Evan and Sean Evans "to convince a child to send him sexually explicit images".
Arrested and arraigned on October 30, Holmberg pled not-guilty at the US District Court in Fargo, North Dakota. Judge Alice Senechal released Holmberg under the conditions: forfeiture of his passport; no contact with minors, victims, and witnesses; no access to the internet, no travel outside Greater Grand Forks or Fargo; and no possession of firearms. Senechal set a trial date of December 5, 2023, to be adjudicated by Judge Daniel L. Hovland. On November 14, upon request of Holmberg's defense team, and with no objection from the federal prosecutor, Hovland postponed the Fargo trial to April 29, which was expected to last five days; in March 2024, it was delayed again until September 9.
On August 8, pursuant to a plea agreement (United States of America v. Raymon Everett Holmberg), Holmberg pled guilty to child sex tourism charges stemming from his travel to the Czech Republic and waived his right to appeal; in exchange, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to drop charges of receiving child pornography and attempts there to, and would "seek a sentence on the low end of sentencing guidelines." The maximum sentence was 30 years imprisonment and $250,000 in fines, and he will be required to register as a sex offender. Holmberg's allocution additionally included admissions of sex quid pro quo, receipt and consumption of child pornography. Due to Holmberg's health problems, Judge Hovland released him from custody with a GPS tracker, pending sentencing, despite previous violations of his terms of release. There is no required minimum sentencing.

### Post-conviction and sentencing

On October 10, 2024, the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System reported that Holmberg had again violated the terms of his pretrial release, this time by repeatedly accessing social media and leaving home multiple times without prior approval. On October 29, Judge Hovland revoked Holmberg's pretrial release and ordered him to report to jail by November 1 (United States of America v. Raymon Holmberg). That day, Holmberg surrendered to the United States Marshals Service and was imprisoned in the Sherburne County, Minnesota jail in Elk River, Minnesota.
Holmberg's sentencing hearing was scheduled for March 26, 2025.