Estenson hopes to simplify regulations in agriculture industry

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring will have an intra-party challenger for the 2014 election as Judy Estenson announced her candidacy in early February.

Estenson, who will run as a Republican, grew up in Valley City, N.D. and has operated a livestock and grain farm with her husband, Hal Estenson, in Benson County since their marriage in 1979.

“My father (LeVern Bjerke) was a farm boy until he moved us to Valley City to be an insurance salesman,” said Estenson. “Though he was a business man, he loved horses, so we always had animals.”