Rick Becker

Ricky Clark Becker is an American businessman and politician from Bismarck. He served in the North Dakota House of Representatives as a Republican from 2012 to 2022.

Becker is a plastic surgeon and businessman with several commercial developments. He was elected to represent District 7 in the North Dakota House in 2012, and was reelected to a four-year term in 2014. Becker has often been described as a proponent of far-right politics, and was a founder of the ultraconservative Bastiat Caucus. He was a candidate for Governor of North Dakota in the 2016 gubernatorial election. He considered running in the run for the US Senate against incumbent Heidi Heitkamp, but ultimately decided against a run. Becker has also held a position on the Bismarck Planning and Zoning Commission.

Becker was an independent candidate in the 2022 United States Senate election in North Dakota, after unsuccessfully challenging incumbent John Hoeven in the Republican primary, garnering 46% of the vote at the GOP convention. He placed third in the general election, having received 18.5% of the vote.

Becker ran for North Dakota's at-large congressional district in 2024 following the announcement that incumbent Kelly Armstrong will run for governor.

Becker is often described as a conservative or libertarian. He has described himself as "...many things: a classical liberal, libertarian, fiscal conservative, laissez-faire capitalist. There are many things that you can refer to me as." Becker has voluntarily requested officials to rescind certain benefits and tax breaks his businesses are eligible for because he doesn't agree with them. In an interview, Becker stated, "I'm a very vocal opponent to most government incentive programs. I'm very much a believer in the free market." In 2017, he said that North Dakota has too many colleges, saying the state board of higher education should look into "re-purposing some of the campuses." As of 2022, he has been described as ultraconservative by many. He responded to this by stating, "someone who simply stands for the platform of the conservative party... are conservative."

During his first session in 2013, Becker formed the ultraconservative Bastiat Caucus, named after the political philosopher Frédéric Bastiat. Eventually, the group grew to several dozen members of the North Dakota House, often holding regular meetings to organize a unified, conservative front on key votes.

During the 2015 legislative session, Becker supported Division A of HB 1461, which would have pulled North Dakota out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, generally seen as a move to get the state out of the Common Core standards. The bill narrowly failed. Becker was the main force courting support for the bill, which Governor Jack Dalrymple, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Kirsten Baesler, and Republican Party leadership opposed.

Becker supported a bill that would have brought the state income tax down to a 0% rate for an extended tax holiday for residents paying those taxes. His bill to ban DUI checkpoints garnered significant controversy but ultimately failed.^{[citation needed]}