Megan Langley (right), executive director of StrengthenND, speaks on October 22, 2025, at Grand Farm near Casselton, North Dakota, as part of a panel examining rural policy. Former U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (left) chaired the panel, which also included state Rep. Jared Hagert and Lorraine Davis, president and CEO of the Indian Development Center. (Photo: Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)
CASSELTON, North Dakota – Former U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp visited her home state of North Dakota on Wednesday in the first of a series of meetings she hopes will lend a hand shape policies affecting rural America.
“There hasn’t been such a broad, comprehensive look at rural policy … since the crisis,” Heitkamp said in an interview Wednesday after a hearing on America’s Rural Future at the Grand Farm Research Campus near Casselton.
The project was created as part of a partnership between the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute. This project, led by co-chairs Heitkamp, a Democrat, and former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, fired earlier this year.
Heitkamp said rural issues such as housing and health care are often treated separately rather than as related challenges. The group plans to present policy recommendations in fall 2027.
Wednesday’s meeting consisted of two panels: one on connectivity, highlighting North Dakota’s success in providing high-speed internet access statewide despite being a very rural state, and the other on investing in rural communities.
North Dakota’s broadband network is part of what makes it attractive to data center developers and technology companies looking to provide artificial intelligence.
Mac McLennan, CEO of Minnkota Power Cooperative, said North Dakota has always been an export state where the population wasn’t gigantic enough to utilize all the agriculture, energy and other products it produced, and artificial intelligence was a potentially valuable commodity.
“What tools will people use in the future?” McLennan asked. “An AI data center is essentially a tool manufacturing facility that you just can’t see.”
When it comes to investing, Megan Langley, executive director of the nonprofit StrengthenND, said it’s great that rural communities have access to grants and government programs, but miniature towns often lack the resources to even apply for grants or raise the appropriate amount needed to qualify for programs.
“Everything it takes to successfully apply for a federal grant is really difficult for a rural community to obtain,” Langley said. “When you think about community readiness, has a needs assessment been done? Has a feasibility study been done? Has the architectural and engineering work been done? Probably not. All of this costs money, and a rural community may not have a lot of money.”
Heitkamp then noted the contrast between North Dakota’s active opportunities highlighted in the first panel and Langley’s concern that some places are falling behind.
“I think it will be the same in many places across the country,” Heitkamp said.
A second hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Mahnomen, Minnesota.
Contact Associate Editor Jeff Beach at jbeach@northdakotamonitor.com.
This story was originally produced by North Dakota Monitorwhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Ohio Capital Journal and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
