ND Sen. Dorgan Won't Run for Re-Election

In a move one Democratic aide called a “total stunner,” North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan announced today that he won’t run for re-election this fall. Dorgan, 68, says “this decision does not relate to any dissatisfaction that I have about serving in the Senate,” and that he wants to spend more time with his family.

It’s “un-spinnably bad news for the Democrats,” Nate Silver adds, given the party’s slim control of the Senate. Though Dorgan was quite popular in North Dakota—and wasn’t facing a serious Republican challenger—the state has often voted for the GOP’s presidential candidate, raising the party’s hopes of a pickup in “what will likely be a bad national environment for the Democrats.”
(More Byron Dorgan stories.)