Heidi Heitkamp
North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp has been offered a seat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Heitkamp told supporters last week after winning her election, the Associated Press has reported.

Heitkamp also said she hopes Congress will pass a farm bill during the lame duck session, but that if it doesn't, then writing the next farm bill will be “job one” for her in Washington, reported Valleynewslive.com, a Fargo and Grand Forks, N.D. website.

The theme of her campaign was “three Fs”: farm bill, fracking and finances.

Heitkamp named campaign manager Tessa Gold as her chief of staff in the Senate.

Gold was chief of staff to former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., before Sandlin’s defeat in 2010. She previously worked for former Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and former Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.

A native of Jamestown, N.D., Gould served as associate development director for the University of South Dakota Foundation before managing Heitkamp’s campaign.