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Small Town Upbringing

Doug was raised in a tiny town in North Dakota. As a freshman in high school, his life changed forever. Doug was pulled off the team bus and told his dad was dying. The community rallied around the family, and his mother went back to work. Doug learned the importance of grit and determination from his parents and still cherishes the small-town values that shaped his childhood.

Work Ethic and Education

Doug worked his way through college, including as a chimney sweep. It was dangerous, but it paid $40 per chimney, which was a lot more than minimum wage. He lived the values of hard work and taking initiative – and still does.

World-Class Business Leader

Doug “bet the farm” to help grow a small start-up business in North Dakota into a worldwide, billion-dollar company. He ignored the naysayers who said you couldn’t build a tech company in North Dakota and created over 2,000 high-paying jobs with employees from over 220 towns in North Dakota.

Tremendously Successful

Under Doug’s leadership, North Dakota is a leader in innovation, creating a boom across the energy, agriculture, and technology sectors. In Burgum’s first year as governor, he inherited a $1.7 billion budget shortfall. Doug balanced the budget by cutting spending. He helped pass term limits and enacted the largest tax cut in North Dakota history. It’s no wonder that Forbes named Doug the country’s “Best Entrepreneurial Governor.”

Economy

The economy needs to be the absolute top priority. It’s the main thing. A strong American economy propels everything else and is the key to unlocking the best of America.

Innovation has always been America’s best weapon. Innovation over regulation is how you solve the challenges we face today. Regulation looks backward and innovation looks towards the future. It’s provided an opportunity for a better life to Americans willing to reach for it. All that is now at risk.

Doug will get inflation under control, cut taxes, lower gas prices, reduce the cost of living and help people realize their fullest potential.

Energy

A key reason we need to empower American innovation is to dramatically increase energy production. Energy has to be our second priority.

Doug knows we need to stop buying energy from our enemies and start selling energy to our friends and allies. America produces energy cleaner and safer than anywhere else in the world. When America becomes truly energy independent and supports our allies we prevent wars like Putin started in Ukraine. We stabilize the globe and restore America as the leader of the free world.

As the governor of one of the largest energy producing states in America and a business leader who built a software company that served 140,000 different businesses in 132 countries, Doug understands the future is going to be won at the intersection of innovation and energy.

National Security

Doug believes we need to recognize the real threats to America and strengthen national security.

Our enemies aren’t our neighbors down the street. Our enemies are countries that want to see our way of life destroyed. In a country built on neighbors helping neighbors, we’ve become a country of neighbors fighting neighbors.

We should be fighting to unite the country against our common enemies like China and Putin.