FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The year in North Dakota was dominated by politics, from the hard-fought U.S. Senate race between Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer to a complimentary and controversial Super Bowl soiree that Gov. Doug Burgum attended and a Trump administration trade dispute that hit soybean farmers the hardest.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp bid an emotional farewell to the U.S. Senate, telling colleagues that "gridlock and partisanship does not have to rule the day."

Heitkamp, in a half-hour speech from the Senate floor, appealed to Congress to display "more political courage" and to "rise above "partisanship and rancor."

Heitkamp told lawmakers to use "facts and judgment — not polls — to make our decisions."

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — When Democrat Heidi Heitkamp leaves the U.S. Senate at the end of the year, members of North Dakota's Native American community will lose a powerful friend on causes important to them, from school computers to voting rights to missing and murdered indigenous women.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The day after his election to the U.S. Senate, Republican Kevin Cramer assured North Dakota farmers that he has President Donald Trump's ear on trade and that Trump will get them a good — and maybe even a great — deal.

"This is a priority for me," Cramer told The Associated Press Wednesday. "President Trump has told me, 'If you want me to push this through fast I will get a good deal for farmers but if you give me some time I will get a great deal.'"

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Only a few dozen Native American voters appear to have been affected on Election Day by changes to North Dakota's voter identification requirements that many tribal members believed were aimed at suppressing their vote.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republicans once again had their way in North Dakota, punctuated by Kevin Cramer's victory over Heidi Heitkamp in a highly charged U.S. Senate race and Kelly Armstrong's quieter but convincing win to fill Cramer's U.S. House seat.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — It took a pair of personal appeals from President Donald Trump for Republican Kevin Cramer to gamble his hard-won congressional seat for a U.S. Senate bid against one of the state's most well-known and charismatic politicians.

Cramer defeated Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp on Tuesday after a long and contentious campaign in the conservative state by maximizing his support of Trump to help overcome Heitkamp's big money advantage.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The biggest prize in North Dakota on Tuesday was the state's U.S. Senate seat, where Republican Kevin Cramer derailed the re-election bid of Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to give the GOP wins in both congressional races.

The state ballot had plenty of other items worth voters' attention. Just two years after voters said yes to medicinal marijuana, they rejected the idea of extending that right to recreational pot. Here's a rundown on the election:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republican Kevin Cramer ousted Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp on Tuesday, persuading North Dakota voters that his emphatic conservatism would serve them better than her occasional independence from her own party.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republican Kevin Cramer and Democrat Heidi Heitkamp were finishing their Senate race Monday with a flurry of campaigning in North Dakota's capital city and across the state.

The race has big stakes for the state and the nation, with Republicans banking on it to help retain control of the Senate. Incumbent Sen. Heitkamp, who is seeking her second term, is seen as one of the most vulnerable senators among red-state Democrats.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — When Sen. Heidi Heitkamp was choosing her campaign headquarters, Fargo was the obvious choice. She grew up in the area, it's nearly twice as large as any other North Dakota city and it's the biggest potential source of liberal-minded voters in the strongly conservative state.

The North Dakota Democratic Party posted a misleading ad on its website and on Facebook that suggests state residents should reconsider voting in this year's election if they have hunting licenses in other states.

Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer is seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in this year's Midterm election.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden kicked off Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp's final statewide campaign tour Thursday in a whisper instead of his usual fiery tone, making a quiet call for civility that was accentuated by laryngitis.

MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and her Republican opponent Kevin Cramer said Wednesday they oppose a ballot measure that would legalize marijuana, and they both support a ban on non-citizens voting in the state.

But they disagree on a sweeping government ethics overhaul measure. Heitkamp voted for it; Cramer said he won't.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota U.S. Senate candidates Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer are enlisting some high-profile help from their respective parties, while also planning a flurry of appearances across the state in the last full week of their long, expensive and contentious campaign.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The outcome of one of the nation's most critical Senate races could come down to an unrelated question: how North Dakota residents feel about blocking noncitizens from voting — even though such voting is already illegal.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Senate candidates Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer on Friday turned what was supposed to be a debate with rapid-fire questions into heated arguments about health care, Social Security and trade.

Marijuana legalization. An increase in the minimum wage. Expansion of Medicaid. Come Election Day, voters in a batch of Republican-dominated states will weigh in on these and other liberal or centrist proposals that reached the ballot after bypassing state legislatures.

Pushed forward via signature-gathering campaigns, these measures offer a chance for voters to do things their GOP-run legislatures oppose. Many are considered to have a good chance of passage.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Former Republican senator and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told North Dakota military veterans Tuesday that Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is a bipartisan, common sense lawmaker who will continue to look out for their interests.

"She is a straight-shooter who does not look through a political lens," said Hagel, a former two-term senator from Nebraska and twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran. "She sure as hell deserves your consideration for a second term."

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The first debate Thursday between Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and Republican challenger Kevin Cramer began with and handshake and a hug and ended with some of the tensest exchanges of the evening as the candidates directly questioned each other.

In between, both made some claims worth a deeper look:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Sen. Heidi Heitkamp opened her debate Thursday against Republican challenger Kevin Cramer with a renewed apology for a newspaper ad attacking her opponent that improperly identified some survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, calling it a "grave and horrible error."

"I am praying for guidance and forgiveness," the Democrat told the nearly 200 people at Bismarck State College during her and Cramer's first debate before the Nov. 6 election.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Latest on the first debate between Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and Republican challenger Kevin Cramer (all times local):

7:50 p.m.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp opened her debate Thursday against Republican challenger Kevin Cramer with a renewed apology for a newspaper ad attacking her opponent that improperly identified some survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says a staff member who helped gather names for a newspaper ad that identified some victims of sexual abuse without their permission is no longer with her campaign.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Sen. Heidi Heitkamp apologized Tuesday for misidentifying victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape who were listed in a recent North Dakota newspaper ad aimed at her opponent.

The Democrat, who is facing a tough race for re-election, said in a statement that she had recently learned that several of the women named in the ad either hadn't authorized it or are not survivors of abuse.