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 Monday that she is running for North Dakota’s lone seat in the House of Representatives in 2024.

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

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

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

Mund, 30, won Miss America in 2018 and was the first woman from North Dakota to win the pageant

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

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

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 she believes in limited government and reiterated her pro-choice stance, saying, “I don’t think they should police women.”

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

But she sidestepped questions about whether she supports former President Donald Trump, who is still seen by many as a kingmaker of the Republican Party.

“As a lawyer, I support law and order,” Mund said. “If you’re found guilty, that’s a court decision.”

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

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

Mund was the last Miss America winner to compete in the swimsuit portion of the pageant and voiced her support for the organization’s discontinuation of the competition. Mund is pictured competing in the Swimsuit Challenge at the 2018 Miss America competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 10, 2017

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 eliminating the swimsuit competition and was the last Miss America crowned to participate in that part of the pageant.

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

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

Mund attended Brown for her undergraduate degree and earned a degree in business administration, graduating from Harvard Law School in May 2022 – just three months before her first bid for Congress in North Dakota.

Mund made an unsuccessful bid for North Dakota’s only congressional seat in 2022 as an independent in support of abortion rights after the Dobbs Supreme Court ruling

Mund announced its 2024 bid on social media on Monday. While quoting Taylor Swift’s lyrics in her X post, the millennial congressional candidate asked, “Are you ready?”

Mund, pictured with her mother, graduated from Harvard Law School in 2022 and made her first bid for U.S. Congress just three months later

She plans to roll out her policy positions in the coming days and is speaking to the North Dakota outlet Your Tuesday news leader to talk more about her run and her platform this time.

In the 2024 elections, Armstrong is looking to fill the seat vacated by retiring Governor Doug Burgum, who ran 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 now wants to elect a new governor and at-large representative in this year’s elections — paving the way for some Republican primaries in the deep-red state.

Democrats have not won an election in North Dakota since 2012.