2024 Presidential Election: Republican Candidate Doug Burgum
AI Generated Art of Doug Burgum
Doug Burgum is a billionaire entrepreneur. He attended North Dakota State University, before gaining an MBA from Stanford. Burgum made a large portion of his money from selling his company Great Plains Software, selling his company to Microsoft for 1.1 billion dollars in 2001.
He joined Microsoft as the Senior Vice President of the new Microsoft Business Solutions Group. He would leave 6 years later, creating a real-estate development firm and venture capital firm.
Burgum entered politics in 2016, running for North Dakota governor and winning easily, scoring over 75% of the vote.
Stances
Burgum is a small-government Republican, favoring tax cuts and believing in states’ right to decide on numerous issues like abortion. He has adopted many of the culture war issues such as Critical Race Theory, banning it in the state’s K-12 schools. Along with that he tackled the anti-LGBTQ resolution, which at one point he called it “divisive and divisional.”
However, he has recently changed his stance, signing multiple anti-LGBTQ laws. A deviation from the Republican party is his stance on energy. All in the while he is supporting fossil fuels and the Dakota Access Pipeline, which items are in-line with the party.
Burgum has set a goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2023 for North Dakota while governor, using carbon capture and storage technology to reduce carbon emissions.
Current Campaign
He has struggled to find a foothold in the primary. He is currently polling around 0.3% on average. In an attempt to extend his campaign to the first Republican primary debate on August 23rd, he has resorted to what can be called bribery.
If an individual donates a dollar($1) to his campaign, they will receive a twenty-dollar ($20) gift card. This offer stood to the first 50,000 donors, which would be enough to meet one of the requirements for the debate.
