If North Dakota voters are looking for substance, accomplishment, intelligence and down-to-earth experience, they will vote for Katrina Christiansen for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Kevin Cramer.

Checking the box for Christiansen should not be about political party preference. She happens to be a Democrat, and embodies the best commonsense North Dakota values of that persuasion. By contrast, the incumbent has abandoned true Republican conservative values by hitching his opportunistic star to the reckless doctrines of the Trump cult. She reveres the U.S. Constitution. Cramer is a Trump bootlicker, and therefore is complicit in Trump’s oft-stated intention to ignore mandates in the Constitution with which he disagrees.

Moreover, Christiansen has done stuff. I mean, real stuff. Her small-town rural roots afforded her a first hand look at the heartache and trauma of her family losing the farm when she was young. She understands the economics of big ag and small family farming. Her education focused on disciplines specific to enhancing farm practices and value-added commodity processing. An undergraduate biological systems engineer, she later earned a doctorate in ag engineering that studied costs and benefits of biofuel production.

But it’s how she has applied her education that is impressive. She owns or co-owns three patents: one for a mechanism to add value to sorghum processing; a second for analysis of energy input-output for biofuel feedstocks; another for developing equipment for craft maltsters. That last one was done with a Fargo start-up business.

These are significant accomplishments in the real workaday world. It’s practical research and development that has improved North Dakota farming and agribusiness. Unlike the incumbent, Christiansen has first-rate private-sector experience and deep understanding of how government and agriculture can work together. By contrast, the senator’s record is a lifetime in politics and government, with hardly a blip of working outside of those comfy realms.

In addition to her academic successes and hands-on ag engineering achievements, Christiansen has helped raise a family, and was on the engineering faculty of the University of Jamestown. When both her professional career and private life are examined, her commitment to North Dakota’s people could not be more obvious.

She’s the real thing. As a senator, she would be as disciplined and tenacious as her campaign material says she is. Her record proves as much. Unlike the incumbent, Christiansen would bring far more than political opportunism to the U.S. Senate. Unlike “experienced” Cramer, she would not be captive to a cult, but rather would put country, state and patriotism above unprincipled loyalty.

A lot of votes have been cast in early voting. There are more to be cast between now and Tuesday. Given the state’s political bent, Christianson’s is an uphill test. But here’s an opportunity to look past the D or the R, and vote for a candidate who has the values, real-life accomplishments and demonstrated intelligence to be a great U.S. senator.

Zaleski retired in 2017 after 30 years as The Forum’s editorial page editor. He is a former member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, a member of the advisory board of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute at North Dakota State University, and the recipient of two Herman Roe Editorial Writing Awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association. Contact him at jzaleski@forumcomm.com or 701-241-5521.