North Dakota Senate: The race at a glance

Democrat Heidi Heitkamp has improbably turned a near-certain Republican pickup into a real race

Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota's former attorney general, is giving Republican Rick Berg a real run for his money in the Peace Garden State.
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images, Faecbook.com/Heidi Heitkamp)

When Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) announced he wasn't seeking a sixth term, the Democrats' hopes of hanging onto the seat, and maintaining control of the Senate, suffered a big blow. North Dakota Republicans picked as their candidate Rep. Rick Berg, a millionaire who had won a statewide race only two years ago. (North Dakota has only one congressional seat.) Democrats chose former North Dakota Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp. And surprisingly, in a race that apparently has as much to do with personality as policy, Heitkamp and Berg are running neck and neck. Here's what you should know:

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