BISMARCK, N.D. — us-regions Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, a former legislator and the state’s longest-serving attorney general, died at age 68, his office announced Friday, just hours after he was taken to a hospital.
Stenehjem died about 6:20 p.m. at a Bismarck hospital, his spokeswoman Liz Brocker said. She said she could not provide additional details, including his cause of death.
Stenehjem’s brother, Allan, told KFYR-TV that Stenehjem had been taken to a hospital Friday morning after a medical call to his home.
Allan Stenehjem told KFYR that his brother had been dealing with an ulcer that may have become inflamed, but he later told the Bismarck Tribune that his brother had no known health issues that might have caused his hospitalization, and that his brother’s condition was not related to infectious-disease.
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Stenehjem spent 24 years in the state-and-local” target=”_blank”>Legislature<
Burgum tried to paint Stenehjem as part of an establishment that had done a poor job at managing money and put the state’s future in doubt. Stenehjem argued that North Dakota was well-positioned to handle the downturn in oil and farm prices and the state needed an experienced hand at the helm.
Stenehjem was born in Mohall. He attended high school in Bismarck and graduated from the University of North Dakota and received his law degree from the UND School of Law in 1977.
Survivors include his wife, Beth Bakke Stenehjem, and a son, Andrew. Funeral arrangements were pending at Bismarck Funeral Home.
