Hoeven Would Beat Dorgan for N.D. Senate Seat if He Runs

Hoeven won election for his current term as governor with nearly three-quarters of the vote. Dorgan, in all of his runs for Senate, has polled 59 percent or higher.

The Bismarck Tribune said GOP state legislators made another attempt in October at persuading Hoeven to make the run, but he gave no hints about his intentions. One of the legislators described Hoeven to the newspaper as "a realist" about the job of taking on Dorgan, who has almost $4 million in his campaign treasury.

Rasmussen also matched Dorgan up against Duane Sand, who has made unsuccessful bids in the state for Senator and congressman. Dorgan led him 52 percent to 37 percent with 3 percent preferring someone else and 8 percent undecided.

Both Dorgan and Hoeven have high favorability numbers, but Hoeven tops Dorgan with 82 percent of voters seeing him favorably, while 61 percent say the same of Dorgan.