North Dakota’s Native Son Builds Big National Profile

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore Flickr

One of the more unexpected and intriguing storylines of this wild presidential campaign cycle is the sudden emergence of North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a 67-year-old businessman who has risen from relative obscurity to become one of the Trump campaign’s top surrogates – and even a potential vice presidential candidate.

Burgum first entered the spotlight last June when he launched his own longshot campaign for president. The move raised eyebrows in Washington, as Burgum had just entered politics in 2016 and was not well known outside of North Dakota. Shortly after entering the race, a Quinnipiac poll showed 90 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning respondents said they hadn’t heard enough about him to form an opinion on him. Early primary polls had him at just 0.4 percent support.

But Burgum nonetheless managed to make the debate stage by spending big on ads in Iowa and New Hampshire and using innovative methods to meet the RNC’s required thresholds of support – including the controversial strategy of offering anyone who donated $1 to his campaign a $20 “Biden Relief Card.”

Burgum failed to make waves at the first or second debate – the biggest headline he generated was over the fact that he tore his Achilles playing basketball the day before the first event. But he did establish himself as knowledgeable on energy and the economy and as an effective critic of Biden’s electric vehicle mandate. He failed to make the third debate, and then suspended his campaign in early December 2023.

Nonetheless, while Burgum didn’t become enough voters’ top pick, he did earn respect as a generally likable person with a common-sense understanding of the issues Americans care most about.

Part of that appeal is likely due to Burgum’s background in North Dakota. The son of farmers in Arthur, a town of less than 400 people in the eastern part of the state, Burgum grew up learning the ropes of the agriculture business before attending North Dakota State University and then going on to earn an MBA from Stanford.

While at Stanford, Burgum befriended Steve Ballmer, the future CEO of Microsoft. After a stint in Chicago as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, he returned to North Dakota to take over as president of Great Plains Software, a tech company in Fargo.

In 2001, Microsoft acquired Great Plains for $1.1 billion – at the time Microsoft’s largest ever purchase. Burgum remained on at Microsoft as a senior vice president until 2007, after which he started a venture capital firm focused primarily on companies in the Midwest.

In 2016, with no prior experience in politics, Burgum launched a campaign for governor of North Dakota, cruising to victory in both the primary and general election. Four years later, he easily won re-election with over 65 percent of the vote.

As governor, Burgum has pursued a number of popular policies, including incentives to address the state’s teacher shortage, broad tax cuts, and a successful program to lower the number of traffic deaths. He has also taken a somewhat mixed approach on climate issues, affirming his support for fossil fuels (a major industry in the state) while also investing in new technologies to reduce the environmental impact of oil and gas production.

Burgum has also proven himself as a pro-life advocate, signing into law some of the strongest legal protections for the unborn anywhere in the country.

Now, however, Burgum’s primary focus is helping Trump win back the White House after he officially endorsed the former president in January. Perhaps improbably, Burgum has become a mainstay with Trump on the campaign trail, and has reportedly made several trips to his Mar-a-Lago property, including for an Easter brunch.

Unsurprisingly, speculation has swirled that Burgum could be offered a high-level post in a potential second Trump administration, and could even be in the running for vice president. Republican North Dakota Senator John Hoeven, who supported Burgum until he suspended his campaign, told The Washington Post that he had “talked with President Trump about [Burgum], and I know that he likes him a lot and certainly I think he’s going to be a part of this administration. Now what role? We don’t know yet. But I think it will be an important role, and I think he’ll be a real asset to the Trump administration.”

Trump himself has also praised Burgum’s performance in the primaries and suggested that he could have plans for the governor. “He’s a very smart person. He’s an outstanding person,” Trump said of Burgum at a Las Vegas rally in February. “Get ready for something, okay? Just get ready.”

What exactly that “something” is remains unclear. But it seems safe to say that the country has not seen or heard the last of Doug Burgum.

Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.