Miss America 2018 Mund’s way is vying to become North Dakota’s first female member of the U.S. House of Representatives by running on a unique platform: She’s a pro-choice, anti-Trump Republican.
Mund was crowned Miss America in 2017 at 23, the only candidate from her state to win the title. She went on to earn her law degree from Harvard Law School and, soon after, ran unsuccessfully for the congressional seat as a congresswoman. Independent.
She is now part of a crowded Republican primary to fill the seat vacated by Representative Kelly Armstrongwho is running for state executive seat after Governor Doug Burgum withdrew from the presidential race and announced that he would not seek re-election as governor.
The polls of North Dakota News Cooperative show his ranking in the middle of the pack. But she hopes the state will be open primary electionwhich does not require voter registration, will allow him to recruit moderates, independents and even some Democrats to strengthen his position.
Cara Mund speaks out on controversial issues during Miss America
Mund attended public schools in North Dakota, went to Brown University to get her undergraduate degree, and then graduated from Harvard Law School.
She didn’t shy away from controversial issues during the 2018 Miss America pageant or while wearing the crown.
During the competition, she criticized the Trump administration to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
After winning, she found herself embroiled in a public clash with the Miss America organization leadership, saying she was “silenced,” “reduced” and “marginalized” in her role as Miss America.
In 2022, she ran as an independent in the state’s only congressional seat. The Independent reported that it was motivated by the leak of the Dobbs decision signaling the end of the right to abortion. Mund lost with 37.6% of the votes against outgoing President Armstrong.
Mund views abortion and Trump’s beliefs as conservative issues
In a debate on May 24, four of the five Republican candidates for the House of Representatives, including Mund, faced off in a debate broadcast by local radio KFGO.
Mund repeatedly seemed to distinguish herself by pointing out that she was the only moderate, the only advocate, and the only one who supports issues that contemporary Republicans generally avoid.
She criticized Burgum for joining a parade of Republicans speaking out over Trump’s silence order outside the Manhattan courthouse where he was on trial. She called other candidates in the primary “Trump’s puppet” and said her legal experience has led her to believe that criminal cases do not materialize as a “distraction,” as her opponents claimed. Instead, it favored innocence until proven guilty, and no one is above the law.
Mund also called his opponents ignorant because of their positions on abortion.
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