As possible Republican candidates Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence i South Carolina Senator Tim Scott move closer to announcing their entries into the GOP presidential race, it’s likely another potential candidate is also throwing their hat in the ring.
CBS News has learned that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is nearing a decision to launch a bid for the White House and has begun hiring political consultants who have advised previous Republican presidential campaigns, according to GOP sources familiar with the matter. with planning.
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While there had been whispers in Republican circles in recent weeks of a possible Burgum run after several Republican consultants had been approached by representatives of the North Dakota governor, his likely decision to move forward with a campaign to occur after the North Dakota legislative session ended earlier this year. month.
In a meeting with the editorial board of a North Dakota newspaper, the Republican governor, who easily won re-election in 2020, acknowledged that he was considering a presidential run.
“That will be the next one, think about 2024,” Burgum said earlier this week to The Forum.
“There’s a value in being underrated all the time,” Burgum said, referring to the steep uphill battle he faced in his first run for governor, according to the newspaper. “That’s a competitive advantage.”
Burgum, a former software company CEO, first ran for governor in 2016 as a political neophyte with no party endorsements and only 10% support at the local polls. Although he faced a tough primary opponent in Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota’s attorney general at the time, who had been supported by the Republican establishment, Burgum ended up winning by 20 points, in part because his status as an outsider in an election cycle that saw Donald Trump win the presidency and his ability to self-finance his gubernatorial campaign, elements that could also help him with a run at the White House.
Burgum grew his small company, Great Plains Software, into a billion dollar software company that was eventually acquired by Microsoft. The North Dakotan stayed on as a senior vice president after the corporation retained workers from his company in North Dakota, according to his advisers. As was true with his gubernatorial campaigns, Burgum would rely on his extensive personal wealth and financial network in a presidential campaign, according to Republican sources. Financially, he sits at the head of the emerging Republican field with former President Trump and former biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy as the wealthiest Republican candidates.
Burgum has also touted his conservative record as governor of North Dakota, following the mold of another potential presidential candidate, Florida’s DeSantis.
Last month, Burgum signed one of the nation’s strictest anti-abortion laws, an abortion ban that allows limited exceptions up to six weeks into pregnancy and only for medical emergencies at any other point in pregnancy . After signing the bill, he said the legislation “reaffirms North Dakota as a pro-life state.”
Like DeSantis, Burgum has too signed a law to restrict transgender rightsincluding a ban on transgender athletes and a measure that would make it a crime to provide care to gender-affirming minors.
“Doug Burgum initially ran on a platform of support for anti-discrimination laws, but the far right has taken the wheel within the National Republican Party. No wonder he has turned his back on North Dakotans LGBTQ+ now that it’s desperately trying to make it a national name for itself,” North Dakota Democratic Party Chairman Patrick Hart said after the bill was signed into law.
His advisers, however, say he would focus his likely campaign on energy and the economy. Burgum, who was chairman of the bipartisan Western Governors Association, could also appeal to tax hawks. As governor, he balanced the state budget without raising taxes in North Dakota and cut state spending by $1.7 billion. He also enacted the largest tax cut in North Dakota history.
Despite his conservative record as governor, Burgum would begin a presidential bid likely at the back of the GOP pack. In the most recent polls, Trump leads DeSantis, his closest challenger, by wide double-digit margins, while the rest of the field has only gained single digits in national polls of Republican voters. And Burgum’s name isn’t one that immediately registers with many Republicans.
In his meeting with the Forum’s editorial board, Burgum said he believes 60 percent of American voters are an exhausted “silent majority” who are only offered options on the fringes of the political spectrum.
“All the engagement right now is happening at the edge,” he said. “There’s definitely a yearning for some alternatives right now.”
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