North Dakota Gov Doug Burgum moving toward 2024 Republican presidential run
Burgum currently shooting TV ads in preparation for a potential GOP White House campaign
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FIRST ON FOX: Two-term North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a former software company CEO, may soon jump into the burgeoning race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Burgum is moving closer to making a decision on declaring his candidacy for the White House. He is currently shooting TV ads in preparation for a potential launch, sources with knowledge of the governor’s thinking told Fox News Thursday.
CBS News reported earlier Thursday that Burgum had begun working with political consultants with presidential campaign experience.
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If Burgum, who is not known well outside of North Dakota, does launch a 2024 campaign, he would be considered a dark-horse contender in a field of actual and expected candidates with much higher name identification — including the current clear front-runner former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
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The governor acknowledged in a meeting earlier with week with the editorial board of the North Dakota newspaper The Forum that he was mulling a presidential bid, adding "that’ll be next, to think about 2024."
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And Burgum earlier this spring made a trip to Iowa, the state that leads off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
Burgum steered his one-time small business, Great Plains Software, into a $1 billion software company. His business — and its North Dakota-based workers — were eventually acquired by Microsoft, and Burgum stayed on board as a senior vice president.
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In 2016, the then first-time candidate and long shot convincingly topped a favored GOP establishment contender to secure the Republican nomination in North Dakota before going on to a landslide victory in the gubernatorial general election in the solidly red state. Burgum was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2020 to a second term as governor.
If Burgum does enter the 2024 presidential race, he would become one of the wealthiest members of the Republican field along with multi-millionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Trump.
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Sources close to Burgum say the governor would likely focus a presidential campaign on two issues — the economy and energy. However, Burgum, who served as chair of the Western Governors Association, could also point to his recent moves as governor to sign into law a strict measure that bans abortions six weeks after gestation with limited exceptions, as well as legislation to restrict transgender rights and a bill making gender-affirming care for minors in the state a criminal offense.
CBS News was first to report word that Burgum was seriously considering a 2024 presidential run.