Rich North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum ends White House run
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, the wealthy former software executive who entered the presidential campaign in June hoping a back-to-basics appeal to the economy would help him move forward, dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination on Monday.
While his personal fortunes could have kept his campaign afloat, Burgum’s dovish demeanor and single-minded focus on three issues—the economy, energy and foreign policy—never caught on with a Republican electorate steeped in the boxing flash of Donald J. Trump and the more visceral appeal of social issues.
Mr. Burgum claimed Monday that he had shifted the conversation on the campaign trail from divisive social issues to energy and foreign policy. He blamed media inattention and Republican Party rules for his poor performance.
“Our decision to run for president was born out of our deep concern for every American and a mission to restore confidence in American leadership and our democratic institutions,” he said in a statement announcing his resignation. campaign would be suspended. “While this primary process has shaken my confidence in many media organizations and political party institutions, it has only strengthened my confidence in America.”
Burgum’s base in small, remote North Dakota and his short political resume had given him almost no name recognition when he entered the campaign, leaving even his voters wondering how he could emerge in a crowded field working in the shadows from former president and unaffordable front-runner, Mr. Trump.
But Burgum believed there was a market for his business acumen — he sold his software company to Microsoft for $1 billion — and a kitchen-table focus that resolutely avoided confrontation with Trump or anyone else on the ground.
He was wrong and never got above the low single digits. But he may have impressed Mr. Trump. Advisors in the former president’s inner circle have done so let it be known that the appearance and money belong to Mr. Burgum made him “central casting” for a second Trump term.
Burgum’s departure technically narrows the field of Republican hopefuls, as Trump’s critics, such as Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and commentator George F. Will, make calls for candidates not named Trump to consolidate around a single alternative. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Texas Congressman Will Hurd and Larry Elder, a conservative radio host, have also dropped out of the race.
That pressure is now on Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, who has shown no sign of sympathy among Republican voters nationally, but whose relatively strong polling in New Hampshire has led to Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, or governor Stopping Ron DeSantis from stopping Florida from consolidating the anti-Trump vote.
Burgum’s short-lived presidential run did have some impact in Republican circles, even if not among Republican voters. To gather the 40,000 individual donors he needed to qualify for the first debate in August, he offered $20 gift cards to the first 50,000 people who donated at least $1 to his campaign.
Just before that debate he tore his Achilles tendon and had to sit during commercial breaks. In the second debate he largely disappeared into the background. When he announced his presence, it was to implore the moderators to let him answer any questions he could about energy, which is ostensibly a strong point in oil-rich North Dakota.