Biography:

John Hoeven was born in Bismarck, N.D., and attended school in Ashley, a rural community in south-central North Dakota, and Minot, where his family moved when he was 12 years old. He was graduated from Minot's Bishop Ryan High School, a Roman Catholic school, in 1975, where he was a top student and standout in football and golf.

His father, Jack, a banker, bought a controlling interest in Minot's financially troubled First Western Bank in 1969. Jack Hoeven is still the bank's chairman, and John Hoeven still sits on its board of directors.

John Hoeven attended his father's alma mater, Dartmouth College of Hanover, N.H., was an honors student in economics and history, and played on the college's golf team. After graduating in 1979, he contemplated going to law school, but decided instead to pursue a master's degree in business administration at Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. He was graduated in 1981.

Hoeven returned to Minot to work at First Western Bank & Trust Co., where he was put in charge of developing the bank's new trust department, which handled escrow accounts, estates and employee benefit administration. He had learned the banking business while in high school and during summers off from college, working as a teller, loan officer and file auditor, a job that included checking loan applications to make sure they were properly filled out.

He became the bank's executive vice president in 1986, in charge of its daily operations. In April 1993, Hoeven succeeded Joseph Lamb as president of the Bank of North Dakota, which is the only state-owned bank in the nation.

The state Industrial Commission, which oversees the bank, got bipartisan praise for hiring Hoeven, who was well regarded in the Minot area. At the time, the three-member commission included two Democrats, Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson and Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp, and one Republican, Gov. Ed Schafer.

Prodded by urgings from prominent Democrats, Hoeven considered opposing Schafer's re-election campaign in 1996, and declared he was a Democrat. He decided against a Schafer race and reconsidered his political affiliation, accepting a volunteer position as a Republican district chairman.

Hoeven resigned from the Bank of North Dakota in April 1993, shortly after North Dakota Republican state convention delegates endorsed him to run for governor. He defeated Heitkamp for the job, getting 55 percent of the vote.

Hoeven is married and has two children.

Past Campaigns:

Although he was active in civic affairs as a Minot banker, John Hoeven had never sought public office before he ran for governor in 2000. Four years before, he had declared himself a Democrat and considered running against incumbent GOP Gov. Ed Schafer. He decided against a Schafer challenge, and changed his party affiliation that year.

Hoeven defeated Gary Nelson, the Republican majority leader in the North Dakota Senate, for the state GOP convention's endorsement to run for governor in 2000. He then defeated Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota's attorney general and a former tax commissioner, with 55 percent of the vote.

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