North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum joined the crowded field of contenders vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Burgum’s announcement comes as former Vice President Mike Pence formally announced Wednesday morning he too is running for president.
Both Pence and Burgum are scheduled to address supporters Wednesday.
Burgum has easily won both his gubernatorial elections, first winning in 2016 with over 76% of the vote. He then won the 2020 gubernatorial election with over 65%.
Burgum wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday explaining his decision to run for president. In it, he focuses his attention on President Joe Biden’s policies and does not mention his Republican opposition.
“When Joe Biden released his video announcing his re-election campaign, it was shocking what was missing,” Burgum wrote. “He failed to articulate any economic vision for the country, he ignored the anxiety of families grappling with inflation, and he looked the other way as a recession looms. We need a change in the White House. We need a new leader for a changing economy. That’s why I’m announcing my run for president today.”
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A CNN poll released late last month showed Burgum was among a group of candidates polling at 1%, including businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. That same poll had former President Donald Trump polling at 53% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 26%. Former Vice President Mike Pence, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all polled in the single digits.
Prior to becoming governor, Burgum was an entrepreneur who founded Great Plains Software. According to archived New York Times reports, he later sold the company for $1.1 billion to Microsoft.
He entered the governor’s office after running his first formal political campaign.
“If you’re going to launch a tech company in North Dakota, you need to be willing to go against the grain and reimagine what’s possible,” he wrote. “When I ran for governor in 2016, we shook up the political establishment — then cut more than a billion dollars in spending, balanced the budget, unleashed energy production, and diversified the economy. This year we achieved pension reform, helped pass term limits, and enacted the biggest tax cut in state history.”
