Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum, who is the governor of North Dakota, is offering to send people $20 gift cards if they donate as little as $1 to his campaign. Seen here last month speaking in Ankeny, Iowa. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption
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Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum, who is the governor of North Dakota, is offering to send people $20 gift cards if they donate as little as $1 to his campaign. Seen here last month speaking in Ankeny, Iowa.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Intending to give the crowded field of Republican presidential candidates a shot, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is offering an unusual deal to donors: Anyone who sends in a donation of at least $1 will receive a $20 gift card in exchange.
The campaign offer it’s good for the first 50,000 donors, and it’s an unconventional proposition to meet the fundraising thresholds needed to be on stage for next month’s Republican primary debate.
In this case, what matters is not the dollar amount of the donations; is the number of donors. To participate in the debate, candidates must have at least 40,000 donors. They must also bring donations from 200 or more donors in at least 20 states.
The rules create “some unusual incentives” to quickly build a broad donor base, said Nick Bauroth, who chairs the political science department at North Dakota State Universityhe told NPR.
“This offer could cost Burgum up to a million dollars, but it’s worth it if he gets on the main stage,” added Bauroth. Also worth remembering: Burgum is a billionaire.
Why would a campaign trade $20 gift cards for $1 donations?
Burgum’s gift card strategy is a sign that his longtime campaign sees the debate in Milwaukee as a potential make-or-break moment.
“Depending on the outcome, it will be seen as either genius or the dumbest political move ever,” said Patricia Crouse, a professor of political science and legal studies at the University of New Havenhe told NPR.
Participating in the debate would raise Burgum’s profile, something its unique offering is already achieving by drawing stories FWIW, axes, The New York Times and other national media.
The online donation process itself could expand Burgum’s base: When people donate, the campaign collects their email addresses and street addresses. Anyone who adds a phone number also agrees to receive phone calls and text messages.
As for what type of gift card is at stake, the campaign says donors “will receive a Visa or Mastercard gift card to their mailing address.”
Is this new practice ethical or legal?
Burgum’s bid raises questions about the role of money in US politics and the ethics and legality of sending money to potential voters.
“My immediate reaction to this scheme is the concern that it violates the federal ban on straw donors,” Michael S. Kang, a professor of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Lawhe told NPR.
“It’s illegal to reimburse someone else for their campaign contribution. Giving a donor a $20 gift card to donate seems a little like that.”
Crouse says that in his opinion, the practice may not be illegal, “but from my perspective, it’s a little bit unethical.” Burgum isn’t technically “buying” votes, he noted: “He’s simply buying the right to compete.”
The threshold for competing on the Aug. 23 debate stage is set by the Republican National Committee, which hopes to narrow a wide field of 2024 presidential hopefuls to a manageable group.
“Burgum is running in the Republican primary and is just trying to play by the debate qualification rules,” Kang said, adding, “The scheme tests the limits of current law.”
When contacted by NPR, a representative of the Federal Election Commission declined to comment on the legality of Burgum’s bid, saying the agency “cannot comment on specific activities, nor can we speculate on matters that may have the potential to report to the agency.”
Who is Burgum?
He is a former political outsider who surprised many in 2016 when he won the race to become governor of his home state. That year, Burgum had placed third in the race for the endorsement of the Republican convention, but he won the party primaries just two months later.
“In the past, the party endorsement decided the matter,” Bauroth said, but Burgum overturned that rule. He was re-elected in 2020.
Burgum now hopes to repeat his odds-defying performance, facing politicians from states with more political influence, including a former president and former vice president. As before, he has shown a willingness to dip into his private wealth to fuel his campaign.
Burgum announced his bid for president of the United States last month through an event in Fargo and an op-ed The Wall Street Journal. He’s vying for attention against the likes of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.
“If the polls are to be believed … it’s probably hovering just under 1 percent,” said Prairie Public News Director Dave Thompson. he said on Monday. “And this is important”, he added, because the 1% mark is another necessary threshold to be invited to the August debate.
Where did Burgum get his money?
Burgum is a billionaire thanks to a successful career in technology and investing.
He was an early investor and played leading roles in three business software companies that went public and/or were acquired by large corporations: the Great Plains accounting software company, the resource management company humans SuccessFactors and Atlassian, the company behind workflow and collaboration tools. like Jira and Confluence.
Burgum was also a Microsoft executive after the company bought North Dakota-based Great Plains $1.1 billion in stock in 2001.
Those successes came after Burgum, a North Dakota native, attended business school at Stanford University and mortgaged some of his family’s farmland to invest in the Great Plains, as he told Forbes.
