North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum launched a long-shot bid for the GOP presidential nomination on Wednesday.
In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal announcing his run, he said the economy will be his top priority.
Relatively unknown nationally, Burgum has embraced a number of conservative policies in his state recently, signing legislation banning abortion at six weeks of pregnancy — even in cases of rape or incest — and blocking transgender women and girls from competing in sports.
However, he opted to veto a law that would prevent educators from calling transgender students by their preferred pronouns, saying, “The teaching profession is challenging enough without the heavy hand of state government forcing teachers to take on the role of pronoun police.”
A North Dakota native, Burgum previously worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He later founded Great Plains Software, a tech company that was eventually acquired by Microsoft.
He first assumed his current office in 2016, winning an easy victory against the Democratic and Libertarian candidates. His current term, which began in 2020, is set to end in December 2024.
Burgum endorsed former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. But now he’ll face off against him and several others in the crowded Republican field. According to the Washington Post, Burgum has already begun filming campaign ads.
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