Dorgan, Byron Leslie (1942-…), served as a United States senator from 1992 to 2011. Dorgan, a Democrat, represented North Dakota.
Dorgan was born on May 14, 1942, in Dickinson, North Dakota. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota in 1965 and a master’s degree from the University of Denver in 1966. From 1966 to 1968, Dorgan was in the management development program at Martin Marietta Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Corporation), an aircraft manufacturer.
In 1968, Dorgan became deputy tax commissioner of North Dakota. Dorgan soon was elected state tax commissioner and served from 1969 to 1981. In 1980, Dorgan was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He was reelected five times, serving until 1992.
In 1992, Dorgan ran for the Senate and won. That December, the governor of North Dakota appointed Dorgan to the Senate to finish the term of Senator Kent Conrad, who had resigned. Conrad’s term ended in January 1993, and Dorgan then began to serve his elected six-year term. He was reelected to the Senate in 1998 and 2004. As a senator, Dorgan served as chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee and worked to promote investment in renewable energy sources. He also promoted his state’s agricultural interests. Dorgan did not seek reelection in 2010.
Dorgan is the author of several books, including Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America (2006) and Reckless!: How Debt, Deregulation, and Dark Money Nearly Bankrupted America (And How We Can Fix It!) (2009). He co-wrote, with author David Hadberg, the suspense novels Blowout (2012) and Gridlock (2013).
