Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad

Democrat U.S. Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986.

Following through on a campaign promise, Conrad did not run for a second term in 1992, but at the urging of fellow North Dakotans, he entered and won a special election to complete the remaining two years of the late Senator Quentin Burdick's term.  In 1994, Conrad was reelected by North Dakotans to a second full term as a U.S. Senator.

Conrad is now serving his fourth term in the Senate, where he is chairman of the Budget Committee as well as a member of the Senate Agriculture, Finance, and Indian Affairs committees.

A fifth-generation North Dakotan, Conrad won his first statewide race in 1980 for North Dakota tax commissioner.  He was re-elected in 1984, with 79 percent of the vote.

Conrad was born in March 1948 in Bismarck and graduated from Wheelus High School in Tripoli, Libya.  He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University, and earned an MBA from George Washington University.

Conrad is married to Lucy Calautti.  They have one daughter.