It wasn’t that long ago – 2010, in fact – when North Dakota had two Democratic senators (and a Democratic Congressman to boot) despite having not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964. But as in most states, the era of ticket splitting is over in the Roughrider State, and Republican incumbent John Hoeven, who was elected to three terms as governor before being sent to Washington 12 years ago, should have little trouble dispatching of his Democratic challenger, engineering professor Katrina Christiansen.

Having held public office since 1993 (Hoeven was the head of the Bank of North Dakota for seven years, the only government-owned general service bank in the country), Hoeven is credited with helping North Dakota become a major energy producing state, and he’s legislated as a friend to the energy industry ever since, although not without some compromises. In 2015, he submitted an amendment to a bill approving the Keystone Pipeline that stated, while the environmental risks of the pipeline were exaggerated, climate change was real and that “humans are contributing to it.” More recently, Hoeven was one of 19 Senate Republicans to vote for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, touting the billions of dollars that went to North Dakota’s roads and bridges as well as carbon capture, storage, and utilization projects.

Christiansen has plenty of ties to the energy sector as well, having worked for an ethanol plant and focusing on “biofuel production economics and yields” while completing her PhD in agricultural economics. But she’s railed against Hoeven for his cozy relationship with big oil and big agribusiness, and has taken particular issue with his votes against raising the debt ceiling, which she claims would have prevented $180 million federal funds from getting to the state. Unfortunately for Christiansen, that’s not the only funding issue she has to worry about – while the North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party is roughly even with their Republican counterparts when it comes to fundraising, only two of their itemized donations over $2,000 came from in-state donors, signaling a disconnect from the party and its constituency that’s made them uncompetitive in recent elections.

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